This Columbus Day, remember the name and face of Luigi Del Bianco, an Italian immigrant who was the chief carver of Mount Rushmore.
The main sculptor was the celebrated Gutzon Borglum, but according to author Douglas Gladstone’s new book, “Carving a Niche for Himself: The Untold Story of Luigi Del Bianco and Mount Rushmore,” the main man on the scaffold sandblasting the granite faces of the four iconic American Presidents from 1933 to 1940 was an artisan stone carver from Meduno, Italy. Del Bianco, who arrived in America in 1907, would leave one of the most indelible marks an immigrant ever left on his new home.