Visiting the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota was one of the most interesting things I’ve done in a long time.  What a surprise.  It was fascinating.  

Before I get into that though, let me mention before we visited the Crazy Horse Memorial we checked out  Mt. Rushmore. 

I’d never been to Mt.Rushmore and since it is 17 miles from Crazy Horse Memorial and every American should go there I’m told, we did. I probably don’t need to tell most of the people who read this blog, but it is a large mountain carving of four famous presidents  in American history. 

They are:  George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.     

The project took 14 years and was finished in 1941.

Basically you go to an area with huge parking lots, walk up a stone promenade with all the State’s flags and get to the end and view the sculptures.  It’s all very impressive. 

There’s a museum, a book store, a gift shop, but no place to eat. 

Here are a few images from our picture perfect morning.  Please note that we were there in May before the after-school-gets-out-for-the summer crowd takes over.  I understand it can be very crowded. 

Here’s an attempt at creativity.  An in camera double exposure. 

But on to Crazy Horse Memorial.  What an amazing story.  

Expected to be the World’s Largest Monument, it is also the slowest to be built.The size is mind-boggling. When completed it will be 563 feet high and 641 long.  If you look closely you can see the head and arm on the top of the mountain in the image below.  

Who was Crazy Horse?  He was famous for being one of the leaders in the victory against the US Army in the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.

in 1939, Chief Standing Bear, a Lakota local leader, contacted a Korcaz Kiolkowski, a Polish American sculpture who had won first prize at the New York World’s Fair.  Standing Bear proposed that there needed to be a Native American response  to the creation of  Mt. Rushmore.  

Ziolkowski agreed and started work in 1948. His words at the dedication of the Memorial, “I want to right a little bit of the wrong that they did to these people.”  

 He and his second wife and ten children worked diligently on the project. He earned the money to fund the project with a dairy farm and  grain mill. It was a slow slog, but they were determined. 

His son kept the project going after his Dad died. And now some grandchildren work on it. 

It took 50 years to finish the head. It’s 87 feet tall and 58 feet wide with eyes 17 feet apart.  The heads on Mt Rushmore are 60 tall. 

Eventually the long haired granite warrior, sitting on a horse, will point Southeast 

More than 1 million tourists visit every year. There’s a lovely restaurant, a Native American Museum, video, gift shop and tours around the base of the sculpture.  There is also a University for Native American students. 

We had an unusual experience though. Because our friend is on the Board of Directors for the Memorial, we enjoyed  a hard hat tour of the top, where work was going on. It was fascinating to learn about mountain carving on such a massive scale.  Included was a  wonderful view of the surrounding area on a cold and blustery afternoon. The following photos will share that experience.  It was incredible.  

Here’s what the finished sculpture will look like.

If you are going to be in the Black Hills area of South Dakota it is definitely worth a visit. 

Links: 

Crazy Horse Memorial https://crazyhorsememorial.org

Mt. Rushmore https://www.nps.gov/moru/index.htm

Here we are standing on the future arm of Crazy Horse.