In just a few minutes we arrived at Crazy Horse Memorial Park. The rain and mist was so heavy we could not even see the mountain/monument right ahead of us and the bus trips up to the mountain were temporarily cancelled. We toured the museum and enjoyed the massive exhibits and millions of dollars worth of original native Indian art on display. Outstanding museum!
I honestly never gave a second thought to our nation's Indian history. I find it amazing that relations between the cultures have evolved into the harmonious country we live in. Our knowledge about this part of our country was so limited, it was almost like being in a foreign country. Almost all names, places and living styles make reference to Indians, livestock and Lewis and Clark, but mostly Indians.
Finally the clouds lifted and we were able to get a good look at the Crazy Horse monument honoring our native American heritage off in the distance. Crazy Horse was a war leader of the Oglala Lakota tribe and fought in the war against the Americans in Wyoming in 1865-1868. This great warrior was called Crazy Horse because his horse was crazy/spirited. He led the war party in the Battle of Little Bighorn and was killed by the Americans in 1877 while resisting arrest.
The story of Korczah Ziolkowski, the sculptor who began the huge sculpture in 1947, his wife, Ruth, and ten children is truly amazing. He was commissioned by Chief Henry Standing Bear to do the sculpture. He had become well known while consulting with Gutzon Borglum who was sculpting Mt. Rushmore. Even though Korczah has died, his wife and seven of his ten children still keep the dream alive. They do most of the measuring and blasting of the rock and run the business. When it is completed, it will be something like ten times the size of Mt Rushmore. This is what it will look like when completed.
It has taken over 60 years to get to this point.
Not far from Crazy Horse Monument is Mt. Rushmore National Monument. After seeing the size of Crazy Horse, Mt. Rushmore seemed almost small. However, it was very impressive as we walked up the entrance and viewed it among the state flags. The busts of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln were done by sculptor Gutzon Borglum from 1927-1941.
Scenic 44 east of Rapid City, South Dakota, took us to the Badlands National Park. They certainly named it correctly. This was about the most desolate looking place I have ever seen, or at least right up there with Hell's Canyon, but different. The dirt looked poor and totally worthless. It didn't even look like it could support anything but sage brush and rattlesnakes. Among all the extreme desolation was strange beauty. There were some of the most extremes in colors of rocks and dirt. We felt like we might be on the surface of the moon or some foreign place. There were signs warning us to beware of rattlesnakes. Oh yes, we definitely were trying to be aware!
Marmalade's Side of the Story
Mt. Rushmore was good, but I had more fun at Wall Drug. I got to sit on another buffalo and a jack-o-lope with Nonnie. There was lots of silly stuff and they even put some HUGE dinosaurs out in the fields along the road so people would come see what else is at the drug store.
Even Boppie liked shopping and looking at all the guy stuff in the store. I don't know if we ever found the Drug Store part, but Nonnie thought it was funny because there are Wall Drug signs and pictures of dinosaurs all over the world. They say things like "5,437 miles to Wall Drug" in Seoul, Korea and places like that. Nonnie says that is their gimmick. I don't know what that means, but we saw the signs all along our trip in lots of different places which were a long way from the store. Pretty smart of them. It made us want to come to see what was so great about it.
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