Jul 31, 2012 - Crazy Horse Monument

We visited Crazy Horse Memorial, it is totally funded by donations, no federal or state funds are used. Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski and Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear officially started Crazy Horse Memorial June 3, 1948. The Memorial’s mission is to honor the culture, tradition and living heritage of North American Indians. Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation demonstrates its ongoing commitment to this promise. Because of several factors, such as the uncertainty of the weather, the availability of financing and the challenges of the mountain...

Jul 15, 2011 - Bear Country & Crazy Horse

Spent the day with Dick & Brenda. We went Bear Country USA which is a 3 mile drive- through park where we saw animals roam free in 250 acres. We saw Rocky Mt Elk, Reindeer Arctic Wolf, Big Horn Sheep, Dall Sheep, Rocky Mt Goat, Mt Lion, Timber Wolves, Buffalo, Miniature Donkey and Bear. The brochure says that is the "largest privately owned collection of American Black Bear". Most of the bear are shedding their winter coat so they looked a little scruffy. After the ride through the park, we went into the visitors center where we saw the...

Jun 26, 2011 - Crazy Horse Memorial

The Crazy Horse monument was first on our agenda today. It was massive and impressive! We spent quite a long time learning about the monument and sculptor and the Indians of the area. Again, the temperature was right at 80 degrees and it was a perfect day to be outside! After having lunch back at the motorhome, we set out to drive the Needles Highway again. Once the rain and hail hit us yesterday, we couldn’t explore very well, and it was such a neat place that we wanted to see more of it. We did our first geocaching of the trip today along...

May 25, 2011 - Ellsworth AFB - Crazy Horse Memorial

This is a continuation of the Mount Rushmore post, but to us warranted one on its own due to all the information and pictures we took while here. Crazy Horse: The Fifth Face! We continued our drive on Iron Mountain Road and took the turn-off to see this “newest” feature here in the Black Hills located north of Custer City on Hwy 385 driving through some of the prettiest countryside. To include driving along a portion of the 108-mile long George S. Mickelson bike/walking trail. The Mount Rushmore Memorial encouraged another accomplished...

Apr 26, 2011 - Crazy Horse Memorial

We took several day trips. The Crazy Horse Memorial is outside of Custer City. Mr. Korczak Ziolkowski was the original sculptor of the mountain. He dedicated it to Crazy Horse Chief of the Lakota Indians. He married and had 10 children and they all helped with the sculpting. When he died his family is carring on the tradition and it is private funded.

Sep 20, 2010 - memorials

Today we visited Custer State Park in South Dakota. The park is just south of the Black Hills. It covers a lot of territory and the road through the park passes through their bison grazing fields. They have a huge herd and the animals will graze right up to the road. The cars just stop and let them cross the road and the bison are not shy about demanding their pedestrian rights. But more fun is their herd of mules. They are not shy either and in fact are known as the "beggin' mules". Several came right up to the window and if the window had...

Aug 14, 2010 - Crazy Horse and Needles Hwy

We returned to the Crazy Horse Monument to get a closer look. We took a bus to the base of the monument. For $125 you can go to the top. We spent a couple of hours in the various building which are full of Indian art and sculptures by Korczak Ziolkowski. He designed the monument and died in 1982 before any of the main carving was started. They will not predict a date for the completion. Some say another 36 yrs or so. Most of the work is done by his children under the direction of his wife. They started the project in 1948 and the face was...

Jul 24, 2010 - Crazy Horse Monument or "How the indians are getting their money back $10 at a time"

7/24/10 Today we went to Keystone, a tourist town. That’s even the way they advertize themselves. There were 5 kinds of shops, Bars, Restaurants, jewelry shops, t-shirt shops, and what we call “junk shops”. You know the ones that sell items made in China, Taiwan, etc. Then we went to see the Crazy Horse monument. It was a rip off. It cost $10.00 per person to get in. To get any closer you had to pay another $4.00 to ride a bus. We came in to the monument from the north. If we had come in from the south we could have gotten pictures as good...

Jul 10, 2010 - Crazy Horse Memorial

In 1940, Sioux tribal leaders asked sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski to carve a memorial to Crazy Horse in the Black Hills. Crazy Horse was one of the greatest Sioux warriors. He is the one that led the Sioux victory at the Fetterman Massacre. CPT Fetterman bragged that he could "Ride over the Sioux nation with 80 troopers". Crazy Horse lured Fetterman and ironically 80 troopers away from Ft. Kearney in 1866 and ambushed him with 1,000 warriors. Crazy Horse killed every person in CPT Fetterman's command. Crazy Horse was also one of the Indian...

May 30, 2010 - Crazy Horse Memorial

Today we are off to see the the nearby Crazy Horse Memorial, the mountain memorial to Crazy Horse, as representative of all Native Americans. We visited here over 30 years ago and can see the changes on the mountain, and in the visitor area. The Visitor Center is a huge building complex now with a theater for a visitor movie, museums, restaurant and native Indian art vendors. The monument itself has also changed: the face looks complete. However, work continues pretty much everywhere since the end product will be a 360 decree sculpture of a...

Sep 6, 2009 - Deadwood & Lakota's

Went back into Deadwood in the morning. Now that is much better, barely any people and everything was open. We expected a lot more "old style westernerism", but it seems everyplace is Drinks & Slots. Ever since they passed the law to legalize gambling to support their historical rebuilds they seem to put a slot machine wherever their is room. Even the lobbies of the old hotels are crammed with them and that is toooo bad. After doing Deadwood, we headed a mile north to Tatanka. This was a project many years in the making created/funded by...

Aug 26, 2009 - Black Hills National Forest

Time to catch up on the last couple of weeks. First, on Monday the 10th, J.C. and Crazy Horse had a parting of the ways. "They" wanted him to clean bathrooms 4 days a week which was not the verbal agreement when he signed his contract. He was supposed to work in the campground two days a week and at the visitor center two days a week. He only worked a couple of times at the visitor center and then his hours at the visitors center was cut down to two afternoons. Well, the powers that be essentially said take it or leave it. J.C. walked away....