Sculptor Gutzon Borglum and his team began using precision dynamite blasting to carve the faces of four American presidents into the granite of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, United States. Over 90 percent of the 450,000 tons of rock removed during the project was carved using carefully measured explosive charges before finishing with air hammers. This project demonstrated that high explosives could be used as a delicate artistic tool on a monumental scale.

The explosive sculpting of Mount Rushmore generated polarized responses in American poetry, sparking patriotic odes to democratic progress as well as poignant protest poetry by Native American writers. Indigenous poets highlighted the physical blast as a violent desecration of the sacred Black Hills.