Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse

I apologize to all for not posting last night - again, could not get connected where we were camped.  This is Tuesday's post.

We found a campsite Monday at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota.  It’s close to several attractions including Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Monument.  Wind Cave is an attraction itself.   We took the Ranger led tour of Wind Cave this morning. 

It seems that we have rarely passed a cave tour, we like them.  Most have stalagtites and stalagmites from mineral-laden dripping water but this one is different.  It doesn’t have any of those.  It's a dry cave. The Ranger described it as being like a kitchen sponge.  It has thousands of passageways and levels, many explored and mapped but many more unexplored.  You can see what he meant because everywhere you look from the main tour route – to the side, up and down – you see openings leading off into the darkness.  It also has unique geologic features found in few caves in the world.  Don’t pass it by if you are ever in this area.

Yesterday though, we drove to Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Monuments.  We were at Mount Rushmore in 1993 but it is completely changed.  The Presidents on the mountain are the same, of course, but the parking and visitor area leading to it have been re-built to accommodate more visitors.  There is the Presidential Path that takes you to different vantage points below the monument for completely different looks at it.  The pictures kind of show what we mean.

The Crazy Horse Monument is a work in progress.  It is colossal, bigger than the faces on Mount Rushmore.  It has been in work since 1948 and privately funded.  At the present rate of progress, they estimate it’ll be another 60 years before it’s completed as designed.

 Crazy Horse was a revered Sioux Warrior during the Indian Wars of the 1860s and 1870s.  He fought Custer’s 7^th cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.  The monument and museum tell the story of the Plains Indians through artifacts and pictures as well as the story of the sculptor and his family’s dedication to the project.

The mountain scene is of Crazy Horse on horseback pointing his arm and finger in the direction of sacred lands saying, “My lands are where my people lie buried.”  Only his head is completed but you can see where the arm and horse will be.

In the picture of the mountain carving with the model note the position of his finger and the horse’s mane.  This will change in the actual carving.  The hand will be rolled over and the mane will have hair coming up to the extended finger to support it.  They are afraid that, without the extra support, the finger could break off.

Mount Rushmore through a highway tunnel.

The Shrine of Democracy

A view from the Presidential Walk

Washington in Profile

Jefferson

Roosevelt and Lincoln 

Crazy Horse - 1/34 scale model

Mountain Carving and Finished Bronze Model

Crazy Horse from close-in bus tour with telephoto lens