Crazy Horse!

We are in South Dakota, land of bison, pronghorn antelope, prairie dogs, bluebirds – and Crazy Horse! The famous Crazy Horse mountain carving has been a work in progress since June 3, 1948. It is to honour the first nations people and their leader, Crazy Horse.
The mountain carving will be 641 feet long and 563 high “in the round”.

The sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski, was born in Boston of Polish descent. Lakota Chief Standing Bear invited him to carve the memorial so that “white man would know that red m an has great heroes too”. Korczak rose to the task even though he only had $174 to his name and started the grueling, slow work on the mountain at age 40. The first blast on the mountain took off 10 tons of stone and millions of tons have been removed since.

Rip and I were curious to see if we could notice any changes since our visit 15 years ago. We have to say that at first we didn’t! On a closer look there were finishing touches to the head of Chief Crazy Horse which was unveiled as completed in 1999. Next the workers are blocking out the 22 story-high horse’s head! The Chief is sitting on his horse and his horse will have a 45 foot ear and a 16 foot wide eye. Korczak is now deceased but 5 of his 7 children have taken on the continuation of the project – a real mission. Korczak wanted the project to be a nonprofit educational and cultural endeavor, so twice he turned down 10 million dollars in federal funding! It is quite the mountain carving to behold even in its infancy. Rip said he wanted to see it finished, but he probably would have to live another 100 years or more – maybe!

While in the Crazy Horse area we toured Wind Cave National Park and Custer State Park where we cruised the park roads with the bison within touching distance! We also took the 20 miles Needles Highway where one tunnel opening is about 9’ by 12’. Rips Joy was overjoyed not to get ripped in the process. There are three tunnels about the same size and the views of rock and lushly treed landscape – including water of course – was sublime!

From the Crazy Horse monument are we found ourselves camping in the town of Wall, home of the famous Wall Drug store. For 100 miles through the dry plains of South Dakota a huge natural barrier called the Wall can be seen as a long ridge, sculptured into fantastic pinnacles and gullies. Water has been carving away at the cliffs for the past half million years and fossilized bones of ancient beasts can be found by the hundreds. The Badlands is home to bison, pronghorn and bighorn sheep.

Badlands National Park is on the edge of the town of Wall and was established in 1978 to preserve the land and sacred places of the native peoples, the Oglala. The 30 miles Badlands Loop is full of overlooks and trails with very unique, barren and yet striking panoramic views. The cliffs are layered colours of pink and grey, representing numerous geological moments in times. Beyond the cliffs, you can see for miles and miles.

We can almost see Crazy Horse from here!