Mount Rushmore in South Dakota has become a sort of template for how to rank people in a field. Who would go on the Mount Rushmore of basketball players? Or plumbers? Or otter rehab specialists? Because we have four presidents on one mountain, we must sort people in every other field in the same way!
I’ve read, but haven’t confirmed, that there was an effort to install an actual Mount Rushmore-style sculpture in Kentucky featuring four prominent residents. The closest they’ve come so far is this mural by Margaret Morely. It features Muhammad Ali, the Louisville Lip; Abraham Lincoln, who was born in the state even if he later became known as an Illinoisian; fried chicken pioneer Colonel Sanders, and Triple Crown-winning racehorse Secretariat (who was born in Virginia but later moved to the Bluegrass State). What a foursome!
Kentucky Rushmore is on the side of a building in Louisville and viewable anytime you want to stop by.
