masons – Custer Free Press – HFR DESIGN STUDIO

By Herb Ryan

Keystone resident Don “Nick” Clifford, the last survivor of the Mount Rushmore mountain carving project, was for a 95-year-old man in surprisingly good health and humor. Don started working at Mt. Rushmore in 1938 as a “do it all” getting paid .55 cents an hour for an eight-hour day, six-day work week. Hired at the age of 17 Don said ” I think I was hired because Gutzon Borglum wanted to start a baseball team and everybody in Keystone where most of the crew was from knew that I was a good player”. According to Don, “it was not a bad place to work while it lasted. I was one of the guys who winched up workers from the ground, and eventually was one of the guys being winched up the mountain face after I was promoted to driller” Working with a jack hammer he worked on Roosevelt’s chin and also did some work on Lincoln. Don worked the project from 1938 – 1940. When World WarII started, all funding and materials were funneled to the war effort. Gutzon Borglum died March 6, 1941 at which time his son Lincoln assumed responsibility for the carving. The last work on the carving was in October, 1941. After the armistice of WWII it was decided to leave the carving as is in order to honor the artistic integrity of Gutzon Borglum.