Rapid City Journal Reports on CyArk's Mount Rushmore Plans

With laser scan, Mount Rushmore to get virtual tours

by Dan Walsh
July 3, 2009
Jeremy Fugleberg of Rapid City Journal wrote a solid summary of the events unfolding at Mount Rushmore, and CyArk's partnerships with Historic Scotland and the National Parks Service.

"MOUNT RUSHMORE -- Mount Rushmore National Memorial is set to get a three-dimensional digital recording, park officials announced Friday.

Laser scans by a partnership will give the National Park Service the ability to develop a digital model for virtual tours of the memorial and its entire park site, memorial superintendent Gerard Baker said. The project will assist with education, security and research efforts. The photo-realistic scan will also allow visitors to take a virtual tour of the Hall of Records, which is closed to the public.

"We're going to open it up so the citizens of America and the world can see things they've never seen before," Baker said.

CyArk, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that scans historic cultural sites with the cutting-edge laser technology, will conduct the scanning with the cooperation of several local firms and the Scottish Ministry of Culture. The project will start sometime in late September and wrap up in two weeks."


The rest of the article can be found at RapidCityJournal.com