Our 3rd Monument Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore is in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where there is a national monument of four of our former Presidents carved. Two of which were our founding Fathers George Washington 1st President of the United States of America and Thomas Jefferson 3rd President of the United States of America. The other two are Abraham Lincoln the 16th President of the United States of America and Theodore Roosevelt the 26th President of the United States of America. 

Gutzon Borglum started carving them back in 1927 and had finished the Presidents face between 1934 and 1939. Gutzon was not able to finish the rest of the carvings due to his death in 1941, so Gutzon's son Lincoln Borglum finished the construction.

An interesting fact that I read was that the carvings were suppose to also include their waists. Due to the lack of funding they were not able to finish the rest of the carvings.

The United States National Park Service took control over the memorial back in 1933 and still run it today.

The entire monument covers 1,278.45 acres of land and is 5,725 feet above sea level. It attracts about 2 million people yearly from the United States and from other countries.

All the cultures that is the fabric of the country are represented by the memorial and surrounding Black Hills of South Dakota. The information that we want our visitors that visit Mount Rushmore National Memorial take away with them is the understanding and love that we have for our nation's history and cultures and the importance of caring for that legacy.

I will leave you a couple of quotes.

Quote 1: “Mount Rushmore is a memorial that symbolizes America, and Americans should never lose sight of their cultural beginnings.”

- Gerard Baker, Superintendent

Quote 2: “The purpose of the memorial is to communicate the founding, expansion, preservation, and unification of the United States with colossal statues of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt.”

- Gutzon Borglum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rushmore

http://mountrushmore.areaparks.com/parkinfo.html?pid=20892

Historic Fort Snelling #2 Memorial

My husband and I went to Historical Fort Snelling on Memorial Day weekend. It was a very thought provoking day for me!!! ;) I remember going to Historical Fort Snelling as a kid on school trips, it wasn't as cool as a kid and I didn't appreciate it as much. Now it's cool, okay I now appreciate it more than I did as a kid!!! ;)

We were there almost all day long, got sun burned (well worth it) and had a very enjoyable day!!!

So okay I will tell you a little bit about Historic Fort Snelling. It was the development for the U.S. Northwest that was once an American symbol of ambition in the wilderness. The United States had gained control over the upper Mississippi during the Revolutionary War with Great Britain and then later the Louisiana Purchase from France. The territory was inhabited by fur traders and Indians that were still loyal to the British. 

The government after the war of 1812 took physical possession of the Northwestern frontier by establishing an Indian chain of agencies from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River.  Also there were wilderness outposts along the river that would not allow for non-citizens commercial use of the American rivers.

By 1812 the 5th regiment of infantry arrived at the junction of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers to build the northwest link chain of the forts and agencies. 

And Colonel Josiah Snelling’s officers and soldiers permanently changed the landscape. They made roads, built a gristmill and sawmill at St. Anthony Falls, planted several hundreds of acres of vegetables, wheat and corn. They cut hay for their livestock, chopped down trees for fires and they were the first to record weather conditions in the area.

Also the Historic Fort Snelling does reenactments that shows what it was like back in the 1820s when Josiah Snelling was in charge of Fort Snelling.

We also went to the small church on the grounds. It was cool we got to meet the man who saved the church from being torn down and having a highway put through it. He collected about 1,000 signature just minuets before they were going to tear the church down. And since they had the signatures they decided to keep it preserved it, they built the highway around it. He was a WWII Vet. They also still hold church meeting there every Sunday morning at 11:00 am. 

http://www.mnhs.org/places/sites/hfs/history.html

Thanks for the Declaration of Independence!!! ;)

I am learning so much about The Real Thomas Jefferson. Did you know that it took Thomas Jefferson 17 days to write the Declaration of Independence? He would work on it from about 6:00 til midnight. I am so grateful for Thomas Jefferson having had the inspiration in writing the Declaration of  Independence, so that we can all be Free!!! ;) And for all the Forefathers that signed it into existence. This has gone through centuries for us to uphold. And we indeed need to do so with respect and reverence. This was a fight for our Freedom and Independence from the British Parliament who was trying to control everyone under a King.  

"When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political band which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."
Please let us remember in our prayers every night to Thank God for our Freedoms that we have and that we might be worthy to continue to have them!!! ;)