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
Spirit of the American Doughboy November 11, 1927, according to newspaper articles. A Smithsonian reference to the Palatka variant Doughboy states that it may possibly have been sculpted by Gutzon Borglum. There is no proof of this, although Viquesney's self-written obituary boasts that "he knew Borglum". Other variants were designed by Viquesney to depict different doughboy poses, but very few got past the drawing stage and none were ever realized at full scale. The largest variant actually known to be by Viquesney is a unique three-foot memorial in Lakemore, Ohio, also listed as "The Spirit of the Doughboy" by the Smithsonian. It was copyrighted in