Mount Rushmore in popular culture face of a national monument was refused by the National Park Service. In the movie, the villain's house is located on a fictitious forested plateau above the monument. Other scenes, including the view of the Memorial's parking lot, the patio at the Memorial concession, the scene in the dining room of the concession and the loading of the body into the ambulance, were actually shot at Mount Rushmore. All of the other scenes involving Mount Rushmore were filmed on Hollywood soundstages. The reference in the movie to the Sheraton-Johnson Hotel in Rapid City, South Dakota is accurate, the hotel still
Mount Rushmore selected Mount Rushmore as the site for several reasons. The rock of the mountain is composed of smooth, fine-grained granite. The durable granite erodes only every 10,000 years, thus was more than sturdy enough to support the sculpture and its long-term exposure. The mountain's height of above sea level made it suitable, and because it faces the southeast, the workers also had the advantage of sunlight for most of the day. The Mount Rushmore area is underlain by well drained alfisol soils of very gravelly loam (Mocmount) to silt loam (Buska) texture, brown to dark grayish brown. Mount Rushmore has