Mount Rushmore still disputed on the basis of the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie (see section "Controversy" below). Among American settlers, the peak was known variously as Cougar Mountain, Sugarloaf Mountain, Slaughterhouse Mountain, and Keystone Cliffs. It was named Mount Rushmore during a prospecting expedition by Charles Rushmore, David Swanzey (husband of Carrie Ingalls), and Bill Challis. Historian Doane Robinson conceived the idea for Mount Rushmore in 1923 to promote tourism in South Dakota. In 1924, Robinson persuaded sculptor Gutzon Borglum to travel to the Black Hills region to ensure the carving could be accomplished. Borglum had been involved in sculpting the
Joan W. Patten Joan W. Patten Joan Wholey Patten (1924–2005) was an American sculptor and scholar of Mayan art. Patten was born in New York City on June 5, 1924. She was one of two children of Willam Francis and Elsa Brainin Wholey who ran an office furnishings business in New York City and maintained an upper-class standard of living. She attended the Fox Hollow School for girls in Lenox, Massachusetts, as well as The Hewitt School in New York City. At age ten, a friend of her parents, the American sculptor Gutzon Borglum, suggested she study with the American sculptor Harriet Whitney