The Black Hills of South Dakota are full of history and mystery. For example:

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Cary Grant, (shown with Eva Marie Saint), in "North by Northwest."

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IN THE MOVIES

"National Treasure: Book of Secrets" is the most recent film with scenes from the Black Hills. Can you name others? And the movie star who appeared to climb around the Mount Rushmore sculpture?

Cary Grant did it in the 1959 classic "North by Northwest." The scene, though, was shot on a soundstage, not at Mount Rushmore.

Other films set or shot in South Dakota include "Dances With Wolves," "Thunderheart," "Hidalgo," "How the West Was Won," "A Man Called Horse," "Wyatt Earp," "Armageddon" and last year's "Into the Wild." Also, innumerable television series from "Gunsmoke" to "General Hospital" have shot on location in the Black Hills.

BEFORE RUSHMORE THERE WAS STONE MOUNTAIN

The sculptor who carved Mount Rushmore, Gutzon Borglum, also had a role in the carving of Stone Mountain.

The Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial Association hired Borglum to be a carving consultant in 1915, and it later appointed him carving sculptor. Borglum's plan was for seven large figures, not three, and an army of smaller figures. Carving began on the monument in 1923, and Borglum completed most of the work on Gen. Robert E. Lee's head before he left in 1925 in a dispute with his employers.

Sculptor Augustus Lukeman then took over the Stone Mountain carving, which depicts Lee, President Jefferson Davis and Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. Lukeman left after three years.

Carving ceased until 1964, when Walker Kirtland Hancock took over. The carving was dedicated in 1970, with some touchups until 1972.

More information: www.stonemountainpark.com.

THREE THINGS YOU GOTTA SEE:

• Southern Hills

Wide-eyed visitors to the southern Black Hills can watch wild mustangs roam Hell's Canyon Trail, witness the remains of woolly mammoths where they fell in a time long past, wander through an underground wilderness and relax in warm mineral waters.

In 1974, a bulldozer operator preparing a site for an apartment building in Hot Springs, S.D., unearthed a giant tusk that had once belonged to a massive woolly mammoth. Work stopped and the digging began in earnest.

Information: 1-800-325-6991; www.hotsprings-sd.com, www.mammothsite.com.

• Original Sin City

Deadwood, S.D., once welcomed Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. They are buried side by side in Deadwood's Boot Hill.

Visitors encounter brick streets, period lighting, old-time trolleys, Victorian facades and, at $200 million and counting, one of the largest ongoing historic preservation projects in the United States, fueled by gaming — poker, blackjack and the notorious one-armed bandits.

Information: 1-800-999-1876, www.deadwood.com.

• City of Presidents

Visitors to Rapid City are encountering presidents on nearly every street corner in the historic downtown district. Thirty-one presidents have been immortalized in life-size bronze sculptures since 2000. By 2011, organizers expect to have all the country's leaders in bronze.

Self-guided walking tour brochures are available at the City of Presidents office, 631 Main St. 10 a.m.-9 p.m. daily, June through September.