Last surviving Mount Rushmore construction worker dies at 98

Mount Rushmore circa 1960.
(Image credit: Keystone/Getty Images)

Donald "Nick" Clifford, the last living person to help construct Mount Rushmore, died Saturday in Rapid City, South Dakota. He was 98.

Clifford was 17 when he was hired to work at Mount Rushmore, in the Black Hills of South Dakota. He drilled holes for dynamite and operated a winch that carried the workers who carved the faces of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln into the mountain, The Associated Press reports. He worked on the project from 1938 to 1940, and was paid 55 cents an hour.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.