How Mount Rushmore came to be

Teddy Roosevelt was immortalized on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, 260 miles south of his fabled ranch.

Did you know Mount Rushmore was built to increase tourism to South Dakota?

And in a state with less than a million people, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial had 2.3 million visitors in 2018 who spent an estimated $136 million in the local community of Keystone, according to the latest figures from the National Park Service.

BRIAN KILMEADE: MOUNT RUSHMORE'S SECRET ROOM

"It’s amazing to think that this awe-inspiring giant sculpture began with the idea of marking the first 150 years of American nationhood by carving the likenesses of four of our greatest and most indispensable presidents into the side of a mountain, where they could be viewed by many generations and tourists from around the world," Brian Kilmeade, co-host of "Fox & Friends," wrote in a op-ed about his Fox Nation series called "What Made America Great."

The iconic American sculpture -- with the 60-foot heads of presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln -- was created by Gutzon Borglum from 1927 to 1941 with the help of his son, Lincoln. Gutzon Borglum chose the four presidents to represent the nation's birth, growth, development, and preservation, respectively.

Mount Rushmore -- named after a New York businessman -- was projected to take three years and cost a half million dollars, but because of the Depression, World War II and some bad rock, it took 14 years to finish and cost more than $1 million, the equivalent of $17 million today.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Recently, President Trump, who allegedly told South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem it's his "dream" to have his own face on Mount Rushmore, announced that the annual Independence Day fireworks at the site will be reinstated after a 10-year hiatus over "environmental concerns."