U.S. Route 16A The route passes through Keystone, South Dakota; Mount Rushmore National Memorial; The Norbeck Wildlife Management Area and Black Elk Wilderness within the Black Hills National Forest; and Custer State Park (including State Game Lodge and Legion Lake); before rejoining the parent highway. US 16A is famous for its scenic, one-lane tunnels aligned to frame the faces on Mount Rushmore, its "pigtail bridges", and its sections of divided highway but with single (and narrow) lanes on each roadway. It is the only route which can be used to drive through Custer State Park without having to pay an entrance fee for
Mount Rushmore and secured federal funding; construction began in 1927, and the presidents' faces were completed between 1934 and 1939. Gutzon Borglum died in March 1941, and his son Lincoln took over as leader of the construction project. Each president was originally to be depicted from head to waist, but lack of funding forced construction to end on October 31, 1941. Mount Rushmore attracts more than two million visitors annually. Originally known to the Lakota Sioux as "The Six Grandfathers" (Tunkasila Sakpe) or "Cougar Mountain" (Igmu Tanka Paha), the mountain was renamed after Charles E. Rushmore, a prominent New York lawyer, during