Mount Rushmore National Memorial

Thanks to the laser mapping of CyArk, a non-profit group that works to digitally preserve cultural heritage sites around the world, you can now appreciate the three dimensions of Mount Rushmore National Memorial via your computer.

If you've enjoyed the fireworks displays that have been part of the Fourth of July celebrations at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the past, take a long look at the accompanying photo, for officials there have decided to do away with the fireworks.

Through the month of September you can learn how to sculpt at Mount Rushmore National Memorial.

It just got more expensive to visit Mount Rushmore National Memorial, as the cost of a parking pass was bumped up a buck, to $11, as of today.

In an ironic development considering its role in tracking the nation's history and its efforts to preserve civility in national parks, the National Park Service's practice of requiring permits for public gatherings, demonstrations, or "expressions of views" has been found unconstitutional by an appellate court.

Among the units of the National Park System that are offering special events to mark the Fourth of July are Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky and Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota.

They're inventorying trees at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, with an eye out for trees that are infested with mountain pine beetles.

Abe, George, Teddy, and Tom are getting spruced up for the upcoming tourist season at Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Beginning this week crews will see what, if any, preservation work needs to be done on the presidents' sculpted faces.

For the first time in its history the National Park Service is going to have a full-time assistant director for American Indian Relations. Gerard Baker, a 30-year Park Service veteran who most recently has been superintendent of Mount Rushmore National Memorial, will take that role on April 24. A full-blood Mandan-Hidatsa Indian, Mr. Baker relishes the opportunity to improve relations between the Park Service and Native American tribes.

How do you combat a tiny beetle that is killing acres and acres of lodgepole forest that long has served as a gorgeous backdrop to Mount Rushmore National Memorial? That's the puzzling question an interagency team of entomologists and foresters is trying to answer.

Pine beetles have been in the news a lot in recent months. They've killed thousands of acres of pine forests in Colorado and Wyoming, forced removal of acres of hazardous trees in Rocky Mountain National Park, and now they're being blamed for cancellation of the annual Fourth of July fireworks extravaganza at Mount Rushmore National Memorial.

Greenpeace activists were able to scale to the top of the iconic Mount Rushmore in July and unfurl a banner of protest over the U.S. approach to global warming because of a number of glaring security lapses, breakdowns and shortcomings at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, according to a National Park Service investigation.

Well, after all the uproar over Greenpeace's recent visit to Mount Rushmore National Memorial, does anyone want to hear about thundering convoys of motorcyclists descending on the park?

A recent publicity stunt by Greenpeace activists at Mount Rushmore National Memorial has produced a slew of charges against the activists that could lock them up for quite a while and prove quite costly.

Eleven Greenpeace members were arrested Wednesday for mounting a protest on the granite presidential faces of Mount Rushmore National Memorial to urge President Obama to "show real leadership on global warming."

Digital mapping. This relatively new technology is a boon to archaeologists and preservationists. It's already been employed at Mesa Verde National Park, and now plans are in the works to digitally map the focal point of Mount Rushmore National Memorial.

Ropes and pulleys have replaced helicopters as the preferred method to haul fireworks to top of Theodore Roosevelt's head for the annual Fourth of July celebration at Mount Rushmore National Memorial.

The nearly 400 units of our National Park System include the names of some famous men and women, along with those of natural features and historical events, but the origin of one of those monikers is a bit more obscure.

The trooper who pulled us over said he’d clocked us at 91 miles an hour. Our tour bus driver later told us that it was probably closer to 95, and we believed him.

In 1970, a United Native Americans-led contingent of Indians staged a 10-day occupation of Mount Rushmore National Memorial and asserted the right of the Lakota people to reclaim the Black Hills. On August 29, a small group of Lakota gathered at the memorial to share cultural experiences and commemorate the historic event.

Do you know where the national parks are located? This little quiz will test the accuracy of your National Park System “mental map.” The answers are at the end. No peeking!

Dozens of movies have depicted actors and actresses cavorting, romancing, running, hiding, fighting, and yes, even dying in national parks or places destined to become national parks. Here are ten of Traveler's favorite movies with a national park connection of some sort. Note that we don’t restrict the field to films shot on location in parks.

Hidden out of public view, behind the heads of Mount Rushmore is a room called the Hall of Records. The sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, envisioned a room to store America's most important documents. Time and money ran out before it could be completed, but part of his vision remains. Read on for more details and photos of the room.

In case you've been wondering, this is what Mount Rushmore would look like if it were cut from Land O' Lakes cheese and not the granite of South Dakota's Black Hills.