Answer

Laura Ingall Wilder's younger sister, Carrie, married a widower from De Smet, South Dakota (The Long Winter) named David Swanzey. In 1885, Mr. Swanzey went on a gold prospecting expedition with a wealthy lawyer from New York by the name of Charles E. Rushmore. Some time after 1925, the year Congress approved the creation of the monument of the four presidents to be made in the Black Hills of South Dakota, Mr. Rushmore asked Mr. Swanzey to petition to have the mountain's name changed. Up until that time the mountain has gone by several different names. The Lakota Sioux called the mountain Six Grandfathers. The local pioneers called it by one of four different names: Cougar Mountain, Sugarloaf Mountain, Slaughterhouse Mountain, and Keystone Cliffs. Hmmm, but then a man with money comes to town...and Carrie's husband agrees to be part of the process.