Monday, August 3rd, on our way to Rapid City, South Dakota, to get the Sherpa registered in our new home state. Unfortunately we are arriving the same week as the Sturgis Rally when almost 500,000 motorcyclists will move into Stugis and the surrounding area. We are staying for a week at the Americas Campground and Lodging in Box Elder, and we were very lucky to get in here. There is so much to see here in the Black Hills and our first stop is to visit Mount Rushmore National Memorial.
Mount Rushmore National Memorial
There are so many photos taken of this monument but to actually see it in person and to see its grandeur is something else. Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a sculpture carved into the face of Mount Rushmore. Between Oct. 1927 and Oct. 1941, Gutzon Borglum and his son Lincoln along with 400 workers sculpted the colossal 60 foot high carvings of US President George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln to represent the 130 years of American history.
We arrived at the huge parking structure and walked up to the Avenue of the Flags, lining either side of the walkway, the flags from the 56 states and territories, leading to the Grandview Terrace, and the spectacular sight of the four President’s faces up close. Then we took the Presidential Walk, a 1/2 mile walking trail that offers wonderful views of each President and a plaque with facts about each one. We visited the interpretive center on our way out where we saw models of their heads and a model of the huge vault behind Lincoln’s head. The most spectacular program at Mount Rushmore is the Evening Sculpture Lighting Ceremony held at the 2000-seat Amphitheater, so we returned later to see this presentation. There was a short 10 minute talk by the Park Ranger and then gradually huge banks of floodlights dramatically reveal the four President’s faces.
Did you know? The figure of Thomas Jefferson was originally sculpted on Washington’s right side but after 18 months he was blasted off the mountain and started on Washington’s left side.
Did you know? It is an unfinished work. The Presidents were supposed to be shown from their head to their waist, but after Borglum died in March, 1941, they ran out of funds and the work ended.
Crazy Horse Memorial
Just 7 miles down the road is the Crazy Horse Memorial, world’s largest mountain carving in progress, and that is our next stop. We were told that it is a must see! Crazy Horse is NOT a federal or state project. It is a non-profit , educational, and cultural project financed primarily from admission fee of $11 per adult. When we arrived the parking lot was full of motorcycles so we had to drive to the way back. The Visitor Complex is huge, and the first place we went to was the theater to see a short film on the story of how and why the colossal Memorial is being created. The story is that the Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear wrote a letter to the sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski, saying “My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know the red man has great heroes, also”. He invited Korczak to the Black Hills to carve Crazy Horse. Korzcak accepted and arrived in the Black Hills from Boston on May 3rd, 1947, and the first blast occurred on June 3rd, 1948, and took off ten tons, millions of tons have been removed since.
We spent time walking through the Indian Museum of North America and then went out onto the Viewing Terrace, where there is a 1/34 scale model of Crazy Horse and the carved mountain is 3/4 mile in the distance. We ate lunch at the Laughing Water Restaurant overlooking the mountain. We continued the tour after lunch and saw the Sculptor’s Log Studio Home, the Sculptor’s Workshop, the Bronze Showroom and the American Indian Artists creating artwork and crafts.
I was tempted to buy something as a donation to Crazy horse but resisted this time.
On our way out we saw the fabulous 9′ 6″ bronze statue of the fighting stallions, very impressive work of Korczak. Since his death in1982, his wife Ruth, with seven of their children, has directed the work which will continue on for years. The size is colossal, here are some dimensions: 563 feet high, 641 feet long, the head is 87 1/2 feet high, the arm is 263 feet, the feather is 44 feet and the horse’s head is 219 feet high. The reason why the Indians chose Crazy Horse for the mountain carving was because, “Crazy Horse defended his people and their way of life in the only manner he knew”. This is a memorial to the Spirit of Crazy Horse and to his people. When asked by a white man ” Where are your lands now?” He replied,”My lands are where my dead lie buried”, and pointed to the land with his left arm.