Day 5b / July 9

The Memorial was begun in 1948 by sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski (who served as an assistant to during construction of ) and Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear. The memorial’s mission is to honor the culture, tradition and living heritage of North American Indians. Crazy Horse’s head is 87 feet tall. This will be the largest statue in the world.

Crazy Horse was chosen as the subject because he was a spiritual as well as a military leader. He was the chief strategist at Little Big Horn and never signed a treaty with the whites. He was murdered by a U.S. soldier during a peace conference.

Following Ziolkowski’s death, his family continues to carve the mountain, using three books of his detailed plans as guides. When complete, it will be the world’s largest mountain carving, standing 563 feet high and 641 feet long. It is being carved in the round and will be visible from three sides. It is not expected to be finished until 2120. The memorial is being built by a private non-profit organization, which receives no federal or state funding. The monument can be seen quite a distance away, since the highway leading to it is very straight.

The well-designed visitors center has lots of information about the project, including a 1-34th scale model of the finished monument, positioned with the real monument in the background. There’s also a photo of the monument as it currently looks with a white outline of the design overlaid. And there’s also a large bin of stones blasted from the site, available for free. Everyone was surprised at how heavy the granite stones were.

The crew uses precision explosive engineering to carefully remove and shape the rock of the mountain. The face of Crazy Horse was finished in 1998, and now the work has been focused on blocking out the horse’s head. This is being accomplished by cutting out a dozen benches around the horse’s head, which will block out the head to within 20 feet of the final surface while providing access roads for the heavy equipment which remove loose rock after each blast. Crazy Horse resisted being photographed and was deliberately buried where his grave would not be found. Crazy Horse reportedly said, “My lands are where my dead lie buried.” His extended hand on the monument is to symbolize that statement.