A closer look
Mount Rushmore contains a secret, hidden room chiseled directly into the rock behind Abraham Lincoln's massive granite head, originally designed to be a grand Hall of Records for American history. The eccentric sculptor wanted a majestic vault to store the nation's most important documents, but politicians eventually cut his funding because they figured carving giant presidential faces was already enough of a massive flex. The half-finished cavern sat empty for decades before a few porcelain panels detailing the history of the monument were awkwardly shoved inside during the late nineties. Tourists are not even allowed to hike up there to see it, meaning this grand, mysterious chamber is essentially just an inaccessible, glorified storage closet sitting inside a carved mountain. It proves that even the most ambitious, monumental pieces of nationalistic artwork are susceptible to annoying budget cuts
