Since its authorization in 1925, Mount Rushmore has always been controversial. 

Depicting detailed portraits of four American Presidents — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln — the monument garners upwards of 2 million visitors each year and brings in roughly $385.6 million to South Dakota's economy in 2022 alone, but still serves as a long-standing wound to several Plains Indians — including the Lakota Sioux — a near-century later. 

Alongside the featured Presidents' notably anti-Indigenous views, the work's location on stolen land adds insult to injury, per PBS. Mount Rushmore is etched into the "Six Grandfathers" mountain in the Black Hills, both of which are not only considered sacred to several local tribes but were on illegally seized lands taken in the 1870s. 

But even with this painful veil of controversy, one thing is certain: The photos of its construction are truly a harrowing sight to behold. From early models of the mountain to dangling workers, here is the construction of Mount Rushmore, as told in 24 photos.