There's a secret room inside Mount Rushmore that stores important US documents
But many Americans might not know the secret behind one of the country's most iconic political monuments.
Enter: The Hall of Records at Mount Rushmore.
Where the frontal lobe of Abraham Lincoln's brain would be, there is a secret room that contains the text of America's most important documents. It sounds like something out of "National Treasure" (or, more fittingly, "Richie Rich") but the Hall of Records is a legitimate historical repository.
Conceived in the 1930s by the monument's designer, Gutzon Borglum, the Hall was designed to be a vault for a selection of documents chronicling America's history.
National Park Service
Unfortunately, Borglum died in 1941, so he never got to see that vision come to life. More than 50 years later, in 1998, monument officials revived the sculptor's dream of installing a record of the country's history inside the Hall.
Wikimedia Commons
Sadly, the Hall is closed to the public (the half-ton slab probably already gave that away). The closest anyone can get is the ruin-like doorway, which recedes several feet into the mountain. It's nestled behind a rocky outcropping to the right of Lincoln's head.
National Park Service
At least, as far as we know. Maybe Nicolas Cage knows something we don't.
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