On July 1, 2011, after riding through Custer State Park and getting rained out of the opportunity to visit Mount Rushmore (no fear, we visited later, in what turned out to be a very special day), we continued our ride. We headed west on 244 and then south on 16/385 to Crazy Horse.
Crazy Horse has much to offer, there is of course, the sculpture itself. It is rather overwhelming in size. In fact, it is mind boggling, HUGE! It is a project that has not and they say will not take any taxpayer/public funds.
The first blast was done in June of 1948 and 62 years later it is still not finished.
Consider that Mount Rushmore took about 14 years to complete. Each president's face at Mount Rushmore is 60 feet long, the face alone for Crazy Horse is 87 feet 6 inches. Eventually the entire structure will be 563 feet high and 641 feet long. The feather will measure 44 foot in height.
Below a photograph of a graphic showing Crazy Horse as it will be, with the current view underneath:
On the grounds there is also the Indian Museum of North America, a theater, a restaurant, a gift shop and the home and studio of the sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski. The gift shop offers some beautiful articles, not all of which are made in the US or made by Native American Indians. The theater offers an informative film, don't miss it if you visit. The museum was, in our opinion, well done, packed full of beautiful artifacts and history lessons.
Of special interest to Carol, a small display covering Osceola. One of my gg grandmother's brothers was named Osceola (he was born 1851). Seminole Indian Chief Osceola was born 1804 in Georgia, died January 30, 1838 in Charleston South Carolina. None of the other siblings of our Osceola have what may be considered Native American Indian names, they were named Harriet, Sarah, Charles, Julius, Evilena. We have no family stories or traditions to really tell us why our Osceola was so named, and, so far, no research done has turned up any hints. But, we are fascinated by both our Osceola and the Seminole Indian Chief Osceola. I was pleasantly surprised to see the small display in this museum on Osceola.
The displays were varied and nicely presented. We could have spent many more hours here. As it was we actually visited twice (that is why some of the photos above have gray skies and some blue skies). For our entrance fee we were allowed two visits (in a specified time frame, seems it was 2 - 4 days?). So, we spent a hour or so this day, and came back a few days later and had a nice lunch and visit with MOC friends Mina and Bob. We had not seen them since we left Gold Canyon 3 months earlier. It is a funny thing, give us all wheels and we tend to end up in the same places during the year. LOL
We enjoyed our visits to Crazy Horse, we did not take the extra fee ride to the front of the structure. I am thinking we made a small tactical error there. Crazy Horse, can be seen from the road, no admittance fees required, but, for such a small fee, we can't figure out why you would not drop the few $$ and learn so much, there is so much to appreciate here.
The 2nd of July will be spent back in Custer State Park, and hubby will show that he is not fearless after all. I smile every time I think of Man and the tunnel!
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4 comments:
Surely one sculptor is not doing this alone?
Susan, one sculptor responsible for the design and planning, he died in 1982 I believe. His family still deeply involved. If I am remembering my facts correctly, he realized that this work would take more than one lifetime, and so, he left detailed instructions on finishing the work.
Check out the Wikipedia page about him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korczak_Ziolkowski
Interesting piece, and esp. the name of Osceola in your family. How did you take that first shot, you must have been up high, but on what? Never went there...maybe when it's completed, yeah sure.
First shot, Barb, on the road coming in from Big Butt's front window.
At the rate they are going, it will be another 250 years before they come close to finishing it, in my opinion.
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