Who was proposed to be carved into "the Needles"?

It started as an idea to draw sightseers. In 1923 state historian Doane Robinson suggested carving some giant statues in South Dakota's Black Hills.As early as 1849, Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton proposed a super-scale Christopher Columbus in the Rocky Mountains. In 1886 the 150-foot Statue of Liberty was unveiled. Now, in the 1920s, an unconventional sculptor names Gutzon Borglum was carving a Confederate memorial on Stone Mountain in Georgia. Robinson wanted his sculptures to stand at the gateway to the west, where the Black Hills rise from the plains as a geographical prelude to the Rockies. Here, granite outcroppings resist erosion to form the Needles, cluster of tall, thin peaks reminiscent of the spires on a Gothic cathedral. Robinson imagined the Needles transformed into a parade of Indian leaders and American explorers who shaped the frontier. Robinson's own enthusiasm did not translate into public support. Many people were skeptical or downright hostile. "Man makes statues," proclaimed local conservationist Cora B. Johnson, "but God made the Needles." Undaunted, the memorial backers called in the master sculptor of Stone Mountain. In an era when many artists scorned traditional patriotism, Gutzon Borglum made his name through celebration of things American. As his style evolved, "American" came to mean "big." "Our age will some day be called the 'Colossal Age,' "complained Borglum, "There is not a monument in this country as big as a snuff box." Born in Idaho in 1867, this son of Danish Mormons studied art in Paris. Back home he worked in the shadow of his artist brother Solon even after several works brought Gutzon moderate fame. Among them were a remodeled torch for the Statue of Liberty, saints and apostles for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, a seated Lincoln in Newark, N.J. and an oversized Lincoln bust for the U.S. Capitol. In 1915 he began the Stone Mountain memorial which brought experience in large-scale granite carving - and in showmanship.

Excellent research Samantha, but I had three particular "folks" that were to be carved.