Road Tripping
Great American Icon? Monumental Misstep? Working through my thoughts.
Growing up a Midwesterner (and perhaps as an American generally?) I have always wanted to visit Mount Rushmore. I can picture it’s iconic presidential profiles in my mind, burned into my mind through subtle stories growing up in history books I don’t remember but have absorbed. So, as spring break 2026 approaches and my son turns 16, I have hatched a roadtrip plan.
Enter Chicago Author Matthew Davis who revisits the meaning of Mount Rushmore in his 2025 book Biography of a Mountain. When I requested the book for Christmas, I didn’t know Matthew was from Chicago or any of the background on his book, but as I began to listen to the book, having left my physical copy with my dad for reading (did I mentioned that Dad is joining the roadtrip?) I knew I had to add it to the Little Innovator’s Library.
So as I continue to work through the book, help me process it here. One third of the way in, I am conflicted on even taking this road trip? Am I basically visiting a piece of created "America” that took from the indigenous people’s of South Dakota to give a picture book snapshot devoid of real value? Am I visiting a piece of “America” that is quintessential to understand and though fixed in rock is still very much being rewritten and understood? Is my desire to visit this about revisitng how I feel about “America” in a time of much tumult nationally? Like so many things, all the above can be true at the same time.
