Saturday, July 16, 2011

July 15, Crazy Horse

We had a buffet dinner in Hill City and then went to the Crazy Horse Memorial. Joe and I had visited this site about 5 years ago. We could see little change in the Crazy Horse structure. One tour guide told us they have been working on blasting the main core of the mountain and not doing very much sculpting. The story of Korczak Ziolkowski, a child of Polish immigrants and a self taught, prize winning sculptor, is intriguing. It is too long a story to tell here, but the one thing that impresses me so much is that Ruth, his widow, and their children have continued building their father's dream. It could be many decades before it is completed because they operate on admission fees and donations and accept no government funding.


The museum is large and filled with artifacts, photos and thousands of Indian made crafts, weapons and other cultural reminders of their struggle to keep their land and lifestyle.


This is a 1/34th scale model of Crazy Horse done by Korczak.


The laser light show ended our day. Tomorrow we head for
Devil's Tower Wyoming.





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