Coming Unplugged!
Freshly returned from a spontaneous road trip to the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota, I'm reminded of one of my favorite quotes:
The Peace of Wild Things
"When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound... I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
~ Wendell Berry
Benefits of Unplugging
Having rested for a while in the grace of nature's arms, I am feeling all the benefits that come when we give ourselves permission to step away and unplug: from our routines, our comfort zones, our usual surroundings and most of all, our electronic devices!
Unplugged from the "usual", we make room to plug into our physical senses in a fresh way, along with our sense of:
Adventure
Discovery
Freedom
Play
Joy, and
Delight
Road Trip Discoveries
I look forward to sharing the fruits and discoveries of my time away. The first prerequisite stop of our road trip was Mt Rushmore. While my history-buff husband was inside brushing up on his American history, I was more interested in enjoying the blue skies, puffy clouds and sunshine outside!
MT RUSHMORE Black Hills , South Dakota
"Well, those figures were there for forty million years. All I had to do was dynamite 400,000 tons of granite to bring them into view." ~ Gutzon Borglum, Sculptor of Mount Rushmore
Interesting Facts
It took 14 years and 400 men to carve the mountain. Despite harsh and dangerous conditions, no one died during the project.
Mount Rushmore cost nearly one million dollars and was mostly carved during the Great Depression.
To turn the dream of Mount Rushmore into reality, sculptor Gutzon Borglum and U.S. Senator Peter Norbeck had to get creative to secure federal funding. They invited President Calvin Coolidge to come to Custer State Park for a vacation so they could convince him to fund the carving of Mount Rushmore. To keep the president in the state, workers stocked the stream outside his room every night with thousands of trout. The president found the fishing so good, he decided to extend his stay for two months— just long enough to convince him to fund the carving of Mount Rushmore.
Over 90% of Mount Rushmore was carved using dynamite. The blasts removed approximately 450,000 tons of rock. Details were finished with jackhammers and hand chisels.
The men who carved Mount Rushmore were mostly miners who had come to the Black Hills in search of gold—they knew little about carving a mountain, let alone creating a giant work of art. While the money was considered good at $8 a day, the project often ran out of money, causing the men to be furloughed or laid off. When the mountain would start up again, the men would quit their jobs and come back to work on Mount Rushmore.
The faces of Mount Rushmore are 60 feet high. That’s the same size as a six-story building.
Thomas Jefferson’s face on Mount Rushmore was originally started on the opposite side of George Washington, but 18 months into the carving, they realized the granite was too weak. His face was dynamited off and carved on the other side.
"I am allowing an extra three inches on all the features of the various Presidents in order to provide stone for the wear and tear of the elements, which cuts the granite down one inch every hundred thousand years. Three inches would require three-hundred thousand years to bring the work down to the point that I would like to finish it. In other words, the work will not be done for another three hundred thousand years, as it should be." ~ Gutzon Borglum, Sculptor of Mount Rushmore
Wildlife
Mt Rushmore also offered up my first wildlife sighting: a Yellow-bellied Marmot. This cute little guy poked his head out of a nearby drainage pipe and came out to say "Welcome!".
Another interesting wildlife fact: In 1923, the government of Canada gave six Rocky Mountain goats to Custer State Park. The high-climbers escaped from their pen and headed north to take up residence at Mount Rushmore. The goats can often be seen wandering around the memorial in the early mornings and evenings when there are fewer visitors.
