Obama's sSculpted Face Heads to Mt. Rushmore Park
Drew Zahn
June 15, 2009
 Barack Obama bust on tour through St. Louis |
Mount Rushmore National Memorial's famous stone carvings of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt are about to receive a sculpted visitor: a massive bust of Barack Obama.
According to Black Hills Today, the statue is made of steel and concrete, tops 20 feet tall and weighs roughly 12 tons.
Crafted by artist David Adickes of Houston, Texas, the Obama bust left Adickes' sculpture center earlier this month, shipped in two pieces on the back of a truck, making its way along a 10-state, 40-city tour.
The statue has been spotted in St. Louis, took a rest in Chicago's Grant Park, the site of Obama's election night victory speech, and is now moving through Minnesota.
On Wednesday, the bust is scheduled to be put on display at Mount Rushmore.
Those that might question whether Obama belongs in the company of Washington and Jefferson, however, need not worry: the sculpture won't be staying.
The massive bust of Barack Obama is scheduled to finish its tour about 40 miles from Mount Rushmore, in Lead, S.D., home of another tourist attraction called Presidents Park.
In fact, Obama's likeness is only the latest to join the sculpture garden at Presidents Park, which contains 20-foot-tall busts of all of our nation's presidents, crafted by Adickes.
The traveler's guide website RoadsideAmerica.com describes the park, which bills itself on its own website as proclaimed by USA Today to be one of the top 10 places in the United States to see:
"The 43 heads are arranged chronologically along a path winding up into a rocky knoll of tall pines," states Roadside America. "Wild turkeys roam the slope. The tree shade makes for challenging photos, but the dappling adds character. You can capture a Nixon and Ford lurking side by side in the shadows, or G. W. Bush gazing toward a slightly smirking Clinton. Beyond those two there's room for another century worth of larger-than-life likenesses."
Adickes is an accomplished artist who has also created an 8-foot bronze statue of former President George Bush for the Bush International Airport in Houston, Texas, and a statue of Sam Houston on display in Huntsville, Texas, which – at 67 feet tall – is believed to be the tallest statue of any American hero.