You’ve seen the postcards. Four giant heads carved into the granite of the Black Hills in South Dakota. Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln. It’s iconic. But honestly, almost everyone who pulls into the parking lot asks the same thing: why isn't there a mount rushmore 5th face?
People love a good "what if" story. We’re obsessed with sequels. We want to know who the next person in line should be. Was it supposed to be FDR? Susan B. Anthony? Ronald Reagan?
Here’s the thing. There was never supposed to be a fifth face. Not really.
The story of the mount rushmore 5th face is actually a story of money, ego, and a mountain that literally started falling apart before the sculptor could even finish what he started. Gutzon Borglum, the lead sculptor, wasn’t exactly known for his chill personality. He was a man of massive vision and even bigger temper tantrums. He didn't want a fifth face; he barely had enough stable rock to finish the four he had.
The Political Push for a Mount Rushmore 5th Face
It wasn't Borglum who wanted to add more people. It was Congress.
Back in 1937, a bill was actually introduced in the House of Representatives to add the head of Susan B. Anthony to the mountain. This wasn't some fringe idea; it was a serious legislative push. Imagine that for a second. The logistics would have been a total nightmare.
Borglum hated the idea. He claimed it wasn't about sexism—though, given the era, who knows—but rather about "artistic integrity." He argued that adding a woman to a group of four men would ruin the composition. But really, he was looking at the rock and panicking.
Why the Rock Said No
The granite of the Black Hills is tricky. It’s full of fissures.
If you look closely at Thomas Jefferson, you’ll notice he’s to the left of George Washington. He wasn’t supposed to be there. Originally, Borglum started carving Jefferson on Washington’s right. He spent two years on it. Then, they realized the rock was garbage. It was full of feldspar and cracks that wouldn't hold a nose, let alone a whole face. They had to blast the original Jefferson off the mountain with dynamite and start over on the other side.
When people talk about a mount rushmore 5th face, they forget that the mountain is basically a giant, fragile puzzle. There is no more "good" rock left. To the right of Lincoln, the stone is unstable. To the left of Washington, it’s a mess.
The Most Popular Candidates (and why they failed)
If you ask a tourist today who should be the mount rushmore 5th face, you’ll get a handful of consistent answers.
Franklin D. Roosevelt. This makes the most sense historically. He was the sitting president during much of the construction. He was the one who kept the federal funding flowing during the Great Depression. Without FDR’s signatures on those checks, the project would have died in 1934. But Borglum was a staunch Republican. He didn't want a Democrat on his mountain.
John F. Kennedy. After his assassination, there was a massive public outcry to put him up there. It was emotional. People wanted a permanent tribute to the "Camelot" era. But the National Park Service (NPS) stepped in pretty fast. They pointed out that the monument was meant to represent the first 150 years of American history—specifically the birth, growth, development, and preservation of the country. JFK didn't fit that specific historical "box" they had built.
Ronald Reagan. In the 80s and 90s, there was a huge movement—mostly from conservative groups—to carve the "Gipper" into the stone. They even raised money. But the NPS has a very strict policy now: No more carving. Period.
The "Secret" Hall of Records
You can't talk about adding a mount rushmore 5th face without talking about what's behind the faces. Borglum had this wild plan for a "Hall of Records." He wanted a massive room behind Lincoln’s head where the most important documents of American history would be stored.
He started blasting. He got a tunnel about 70 feet deep into the rock.
Then the government cut his funding. They told him to stop playing around with "extra" rooms and finish the faces. The Hall of Records sat empty and unfinished for decades. It wasn't until 1998 that the NPS finally placed a titanium vault in the floor of that tunnel containing porcelain tablets explaining why the mountain exists. It's not a fifth face, but it's the closest thing to a "new" addition the mountain will ever get.
The Preservation Nightmare
The reality is that we are lucky to still have four faces.
Water is the enemy. Every year, workers go up on ropes—basically high-tech rock climbers—and fill cracks with silicone sealant. If they didn't do this, water would get into those fissures, freeze, expand, and eventually pop a nose or an ear right off the cliff.
Adding a mount rushmore 5th face would require massive amounts of dynamite. The vibrations from those blasts would almost certainly cause the existing faces to crack or collapse. You’d be risking George Washington’s chin just to try and wedge someone else in. It’s a zero-sum game.
Who Actually Deserves the Spot?
There’s a lot of debate about the "missing" perspectives on the mountain.
Native American groups, particularly the Lakota Sioux, see the entire monument as a desecration of the Paha Sapa (Black Hills), which are sacred to them. From their perspective, a mount rushmore 5th face would just be adding insult to injury.
This is why the Crazy Horse Memorial exists just a few miles away. It’s a massive, privately funded project to carve the Oglala Lakota warrior Crazy Horse into the mountain. If you want to see a "fifth face" of American history, that’s where you go. It’s an intentional counter-narrative to the four presidents.
Why the Discussion Never Dies
Social media keeps the mount rushmore 5th face rumor mill churning. Every few years, a photoshopped image of a new president on the mountain goes viral. People believe it. They think there’s a secret plan or a hidden ledge.
There isn't.
The National Park Service is incredibly firm on this. Their stance is that the work is "complete" as of 1941 when Borglum died and his son, Lincoln Borglum, walked away from the site. There is no money, no geological stability, and no political will to change a National Memorial that attracts 2 million people a year.
The Reality of Modern Monumentalism
We don't build things like this anymore.
The environmental impact studies alone for a mount rushmore 5th face would take twenty years. The cost would be in the billions. When Borglum was carving, he used 400 workers who climbed 506 stairs every morning to blow things up with dynamite. They did it for about eight bucks a day in some cases. That world is gone.
Actionable Insights for Your Visit
If you’re heading to the Black Hills to see the four faces (and wonder about the fifth), here is how to actually do it right:
- Check the Profile Board: Go to the Sculptor's Studio. There is a 1/12th scale model there. You can see how the presidents were supposed to look. They were meant to be carved down to the waist.
- Walk the Presidential Trail: It’s a 0.5-mile loop. It gets you as close to the base of the mountain as possible. From there, look at the "rubble" (the scree slope) at the bottom. That's 450,000 tons of rock that was blasted off. You can see why they can't just "add" more.
- Look for the Cracks: Use binoculars. You can see the "patches" where the maintenance crews have used modern materials to keep the granite together.
- Visit Crazy Horse: Seriously. Do both. You cannot understand the context of Mount Rushmore without seeing the unfinished face of Crazy Horse. It gives you a sense of scale that the four presidents—as big as they are—actually lack.
The mount rushmore 5th face will only ever exist in our imaginations and our political arguments. The mountain has given all it can give. The granite is tired, the historians are satisfied, and the four men standing there are likely the only ones who will ever watch the sunrise over the South Dakota plains.
✨ Don't miss: The Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo: What Really Happened on Vrbanja Bridge
Stop looking for a new face and start looking at the details of the ones that are already there. The way the light hits Lincoln's eyes—which are actually just giant pillars of rock designed to catch shadows—is far more impressive than any hypothetical addition could ever be.