October 5 Rapid City

Crazy Horse Memorial

Crazy Horse was a revered warrior and strategist and an instrumental leader in the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

The Indian Museum of North America and the Native American Educational and Cultural Center complex contains museum treasures, educational videos, a gift shop and a restaurant, but the focal point of this memorial is the emerging image of Lakota leader Crazy Horse as he is chiseled and blasted from a granite ridge in the Black Hills. It is considered by some to be the eighth wonder of the world, in progress.

It is the world’s largest sculptural undertaking. When completed it will stand 563 feet tall. Korczak Ziolkowski began the sculpture in 1939 using the most primitive tools. He and his wife, Ruth, had 10 children and his work became the family’s work. His descendants continue to serve with the foundation and contribute to the physical labor on the mountain.

Ziolkowski

This engine kept dying and Ziolkowski would have to climb down a ladder and start it again and again

The mission of Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation is to:

• ·        Protect and preserve the culture, tradition and living heritage of the North American Indians.
• ·       Provide educational and cultural programming to encourage harmony and reconciliation among all people and nations;
• ·       Act as a repository for Native American artifacts, arts and crafts
• ·       Establish and operate the Indian University Of North America, and eventually a medical training center for American Indians.

There is so much going on here besides the sculpture.

Today, we stand in the sunshine and view the partially completed face and head, which measure 87 feet. The work now focuses on Crazy Horse’s hand, finger and his horse’s mane.

We were here several years ago and not much has visibly changed. But when you consider that the sculpting tools are blasting, jack hammers and cranes and the medium is a mountain of granite, well you begin to understand why progress is very slow.

Mount Rushmore

It’s always a thrill to see these mountain-sized sculptures. 

Always. 

George Washington. Abraham Lincoln. Theodore Roosevelt. Thomas Jefferson.

The Avenue of the Flags makes an impressive approach on a gorgeous fall day. After a good look from the viewing terrace we walk the Presidential Trail to get a different perspective. Lots of stairs, (422), but we’re going “down” not “up” until we get to the Sculptor’s Studio (which happens to be closed today) and then it’s an uphill climb back to the viewing terrace.

“Let us place there, carved high, as close to heaven as we can, the words of our leaders, their faces, to show posterity what manner of men they were. Then breathe a prayer that these records will endure until the wind and the rain alone shall wear them away.” Gutzon Borglum, sculptor (He also worked on the Confederate memorial on Stone Mountain in Georgia, but quit when approached to do Rushmore.)

Did you know that there was a bill introduced in Congress to add Susan B. Anthony to Rushmore?

We have a Yankee pot roast lunch in the cafeteria and some of us add ice cream cones.

Lodging:

Lake Park Campground

2850 Chapel Lane

Rapid City, SD