Honoring Our Leaders in Stone – Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse Mountain [July 14 and 16, 2016]

If you say you are going to South Dakota, everyone asks if you are going to see Mt. Rushmore.  The two are interconnected in so many people’s minds. 

I can see Mt Rushmore from my window!

The view as you drive past

Mt. Rushmore is grand, imposing and beautiful.  As we came into the Black Hills, our cousin Jane (who we were visiting there), suggested that we take Route 244 a twisty road that takes you past Mt. Rushmore.  What a lovely drive, complete with view of the four Presidents and a pull off to view George Washington’s profile. 

We went back several days later to see the monument (Happy 100^th Birthday NPS!).  You pass down the Avenue of the Flags with pillars marking all of the States and displaying their flags.  Then you walk onto the large Grand View Terrace.  The view is (well) grand, and impressive.  The carvings of the four Presidents in Mt. Rushmore are iconic, so you feel patriotic seeing them. 

View from the Presidential Trail

Another view from the Presidential Trail

The Presidential Trail leads you along the bottom of the mountain so you can see the carvings from different vantage points.  You can look up George Washington’s nose.  These views are great fun because they are unfamiliar.

View from below the mountain

Down Route 16/385 is the Crazy Horse Memorial.  Native American leaders invited Korczak Ziolkowski, a sculptor who had worked on carving Mt. Rushmore, to create a similar memorial to a Native American leader.  They chose Crazy Horse because he was never known to have signed a treaty.  The sculpture is intended to represent all Native Americans.  When completed it will depict Crazy Horse riding his horse with his hand outstretched as if to say “My Lands are where my dead lie buried.”

Crazy Horse Sculpture in the process of being sculpted

From the evening light show, this is what the Crazy Horse Memorial will look like

The sculpture was started in 1948.  Crazy Horse’s face is completed, and the block that will someday be his outstretched arm is currently being carved out of the granite.  It is enormous.  To give you a sense of the scale, you could fit all 4 of the Presidents in Mt Rushmore on Crazy Horse’s face.

The Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation also sponsors educational and cultural opportunities for Native Americans.  They have an impressive collection of Native American art and artifacts in the Indian Museum of North America located near the mountain.  There is an interesting film describing the history of the project and plans for the future.  At night, there is a laser light show.  The most impressive part of the show is when they superimpose an image of the completed sculpture on the mountain, showing what it will look like when it is done.  When you leave, you are invited to take pieces of the mountain with you.  They provide cards describing what minerals are found in the granite.

Carving the mountain is a family project.  Korczak and his wife Ruth had 10 children.  All of them worked on the mountain, museum or for the foundation at some point in their lives.  After Korczak died, Ruth ran the foundation until her death in 2014.  Seven of the ten children are still working on the mountain today.

As you travel to Custer on 16/385 you can’t help but see Crazy Horse.  It is inspiring to see such a grand project in process.