Lincoln ​Assassinated — On this day in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. This view of Mount Rushmore shows Lincoln on the right, followed by Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington (far left). The sculptor Gutzon Borglum began his efforts to make a sculpture in the Black Hills in 1924. Borglum chose the Mount Rushmore location because of its smooth-grained granite, its 5,725 foot elevation (with relief well above the surrounding nearby uplands of the Black Hills), and its southern exposure on the mountainside, giving it sunlight most of the day. The talus slope below the​ sculpture ​is blanketed with rock material removed and dumped during about 6.5 years of active construction. Photo credit: Lisa Zolly, USGS. Original public domain image from Flickr