When sculptor Gutzon Borglum began designing the monument for Mount Rushmore, he used the faces depicted here in his 1/12th scale model. Over the 14 years of on and off work, fissures and unexpected defects in the rock on the face of Mount Rushmore dictated the form of the monument as much as Borglum. He had to change his designs numerous times.

This model does show just how incredibly three-dimensional Mount Rushmore actually is. Borglum found very good rock close to the surface where Washington is, but as he started Jefferson, he had to go further back. Lincoln is roughly about the same distance inside the mountain as Jefferson. The face of Roosevelt ended up being deepest inside the bulk of the mountain as the rock between Jefferson and Lincoln was found to be "rotten" and unsuitable for carving. What is most fascinating about the Roosevelt face is that it actually hangs on a thin wall of rock with a deep cleft or canyon right behind it! Mount Rushmore looks mostly like a static lineup from the usual photographs and the viewing platform near the parking lot, but this model shows that the heads rest at different heights and depths from one another.