TARGET 081126 The Colossal Crazy Horse Mountain Carving

The Crazy Horse Memorial is a mountain monument under construction in the Black Hills of South Dakota, in the form of Crazy Horse, an Oglala Lakota warrior, riding a horse and pointing into the distance. The monument has been in progress since 1948 and is still far from completion. When finished, it will be the world's largest sculpture. The sculpture's final dimensions are planned to be 641 feet (195 m) wide and 563 feet (172 m) high. The head of Crazy Horse will be 87 feet (27 m) high; by comparison, the heads of the four U.S. Presidents at Mount Rushmore are each 60 feet (18 m) high. The monument is being carved out of Thunderhead Mountain on land considered sacred by some Native Americans, between Custer and Hill City. Just 17 miles southwest of Mount Rushmore, the monument of Crazy Horse sits along US 16/385 in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The memorial is home to not only the statue itself, but also the Indian Museum of North America, the Native American Cultural Center, the sculptor's studio, and a large Orientation Center where many Native American arts and crafts are on display by the artists themselves.

Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski accepted the invitation by Native Americans to design and build the memorial in 1947 and began the project in 1948. Shown here is the mountain face before work was begun, with his wife and car in the foreground.

Korczak designed an image of Crazy Horse sitting atop his horse, pointing his left hand out over his land. He is said to be responding to the white man's question "Where are your lands now?" by saying "My lands are where my dead lie buried." Korczak wanted the memorial to be a humanitarian project and to be an educational center for Native American history. The sculptor died in 1982, but his wife, Ruth, and family continue to manage the project in sync with his original plans.

The monument has been carved by the use of precision explosives. Long parallel holes are drilled, using machine or hand drills, on all sides of the desired rock piece. This creates the effect on the rock as perforated edges make on paper. Electronic detonating cord is then fed through these holes and fired to create a clean break. The sculptors use a jet finishing torch to smooth out the surface.

Blasting at night is particularly spectacular. Crazy Horse Memorial offers free admittance to all Native Americans, active military personnel, Boy and Girl Scouts in uniform, and Custer County residents. In the summer months the monument is open from 7am to 9pm, after the nightly lighting ceremony. In the winter, visit the memorial between the hours 8am to 4:30pm. Every Thursday, enjoy a free program in the Native American Educational and Cultural Center at 6pm. There is an interactive children's exhibit on site and a museum with art from Navajo, Cherokee, Santee, Choctaw, Tohono O'Odham, Seneca, Dine, Hopi artists. Visit Crazy Horse Memorial any time of year and enjoy not only a magical view of the monument's progress, but also an educational and cultural tour of the museum and on-sight facilities. The memorial consists of the mountain carving (monument), the Indian Museum of North America, and the Native American Cultural Center.

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