Rapid City, South Dakota City had survived a boom and bust and was establishing itself as an important regional trade center for the upper midwest. Although the Black Hills became a popular tourist destination in the late 1890s, it was a combination of local efforts, the popularity of the automobile, and construction of improved highways that brought tourists to the Black Hills in large numbers after World War I. Gutzon Borglum, already a famous sculptor, began work on Mount Rushmore in 1927 and his son, Lincoln Borglum, continued the carving of the presidents' faces in rock following his father's death in 1941. The work
Isabel Paterson position was with a newspaper in Vancouver, British Columbia, where for two years she wrote drama reviews. In 1914, Paterson started submitting her first two novels, "The Magpie's Nest" and "The Shadow Riders," to publishers, without much success. It was not until 1916 that her second novel "The Shadow Riders" was accepted and published by John Lane Company, which also published "The Magpie's Nest" the following year in 1917. After World War I, she moved to New York City, where she worked for the sculptor Gutzon Borglum. He was creating statues for the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine and