24 September 2017
Ellsworth, AFB FamCamp
I have to admit, I had my “facts” wrong about this rock carving. I had low expectations, but after visiting, I’m better educated and it has changed my attitude of this memorial.
Knowing the memorial has been under construction since 1948, I thought this was a federal money pit… maybe a scam…Well, far from it, it is being built on private land, and has never received any federal $$. It is a private foundation that lives on donations only. And the artist, Korczak Ziolkowski was very talented and had an awesome vision.
“Curley” did not earn his father’s name, Crazy Horse until after he proved himself in battle. By 12 years old he was a warrior. Crazy Horse was at the Battle of Little Big Horn, and we know how that ended.
Korczak arrived in the Black Hills in 1947 at the invitation of Chief Standing Bear. He worked on the project until his death on October 20, 1982, at age 74. His wife Ruth took over and his sons still work on it. During his nearly 36 years of working on the mountain, he refused to take any salary at Crazy Horse Memorial. He is buried in the tomb that he and his sons blasted from a rock outcropping at the base of the mountain.
We were impressed by a very large collection of Indian artifacts, an on-site university, an expansive museum and a Native American college scholarship program targeting Native high school kids. Also, there is a large hall of vendors selling lots of Indian stuff.
There is a 1/34th scale model of what the Crazy Horse sculpture will look like, in a picture below.
While progress appears slow, it is massive undertaking on a very large scale. In fact when we left Crazy Horse and went to Mount Rushmore, we were like, wow, Rushmore is much smaller than I thought it was, mainly because Crazy Horse is so large. Good visit, good day, and on to Rushmore.
Here is video that I did not take, but still tells the “story” even though it was filmed in 2009….. I told you, progress is slow.