October 5…. Crazy Horse

We are in the Black Hills of South Dakota this week. Saturday was a rainy day but we can’t really complain about it since we’ve had so few of them. We hung out at camp for a while, Susy went to some rock shops, then we rode into Rapid City to have lunch and see a movie.

Sunday, we visited a place that has been on my list for years… the Crazy Horse Memorial.

It will be the world’s largest sculpture when completed, standing over 560 feet tall and over 640 feet end to end. Started in 1948 by Korczak Ziolkowski, a Boston-born Polish American.

Korczak had already achieved some success as a sculptor when he was approached by Chief Henry Standing Bear of the Oglala Lakota Sioux about the memorial in 1939. Chief Standing Bear said to him “My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know the red man has great heroes, too”.

Korczak spent several years in the Army during WWII, where he went ashore on Omaha Beach and was wounded twice. Finally, after leaving the Army, it was time to get started.

Arriving alone in the Black Hills in 1946, there were no roads. No housing. No electric or water. Korczak had to spend the first couple years putting in all the infrastructure he would need. He also got married to an old admirer from Boston, Ruth, and started his eventual family of ten children.

Still working alone, drilling holes by hammer and hand drill, the first explosion took place on June 3, 1948.

77 years later, the work is still in the family, being carried on by several children and grandchildren. Korczak turned down federal funding twice, because of the strings attached, so work continues solely based on charitable donations.

In recent years, work has accelerated due to innovations in AI and robotic carving tools. The crane was added in 2024 after a $5.6 million anonymous donation. Some estimates give completion dates in as little as 25-35 more years.

The work is not without controversy. Some descendants of Crazy Horse contend that the carving is a desecration of their ancestors’ memory, and other members of the tribes speak of desecration of the Black Hills as sacred ancestral burial grounds.

Enough history lesson….

Korczak’s original works show what the finished sculpture will look like. Compared to the pictures, you can get an idea of how far it’s come, and how much remains.

I think 35 more years may be a bit optimistic. 😳😳