Crazy Horse Revisited

.
The Crazy Horse Memorial is far more than a carved mountain.

It is already an outstanding Native American museum as well as the obligatory visitors’ center with observation deck and gift shop. Between the visitors’ center and the mountain, however, the sculptor (Korczak Ziolkowski) and the visionary (Henry Standing Bear) who started all this imagined a University and Medical Training Center for the North American Indian. On that campus will rise a hogan-styled Museum of the North American Indian – and more than 50 other structures, all to be built using mostly lumber logged on the mountain and the stone that is blasted off it.

In some senses, that vision is coming to life now. Already the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation has amassed what must be one of the largest collections of Native American art and artifacts in the country and hosts internships for university students to work in that collection for college credit. Furthermore, the Foundation gives out hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships to Native American college and high school students.

Just now, however, it is the carving of the mountain that dominates the activities at the site. Crazy Horse Mountain is quite a bit larger than Mount Rushmore. There are no statistics on the mountains themselves, but the Rushmore carvings could fit into the area that will be Crazy Horse’s windblown, flowing hair. George Washington’s face is 60’ high, while the Crazy Horse face is 87.5’. The head of the pony Crazy Horse rides will be more than 210’ tall. His outstretched arm is 263’ long and his hand will be 33’ tall. Overall, when finished, the carving will be 563’ high by 641’ wide – and it will be three-dimensional.

Even when you are on the observation deck looking at the model and the mountain, apparently side-by-side, it is difficult to comprehend the enormous effort that has been and will be required to realize the sculptor’s dream. More than 8.5 million tons of rock have been blasted away so far, and at least 2 million remain. Those numbers should not be interpreted as meaning that the carving is more than 80% finished, however: it is the more delicate details that take the most time.

For example, the decision to finish the face was made in 1987; it was not completed until 1998. But much was learned in that process, and the work at the end was done far more quickly than the work at the beginning. It took four months to carve Crazy Horse’s right eye, but only two weeks to complete his left. In other words, it is almost impossible to make projections about how long it’s going to take to get it all done.

But it is certain it will take decades more – and the work of the Foundation will never end, because it will always be working to improve the university and museum. They’ve done an excellent job so far, as everything appears to be first class. Even the gift shop is free of cheap kitsch but filled instead with the works of Native American artists.

I could go on, but words and numbers don’t really tell the story. You have to see it for yourself.

-------------------------

So that’s our vacation: four days of driving and three monuments in three days. It was remarkably pleasant, and I actually returned feeling rested rather than merely stressed in a different way.

Tomorrow, I’ll get back to politics, I promise.
.