CRAZY HORSE MEMORIAL

The Crazy Horse Memorial is a monument being sculpted in the side of the mountain on privately held land. It will depict the Oglala Lakota warrior, Crazy Horse, riding a horse and pointing to his tribal land. The memorial was commissioned by Henry Standing Bear, a Lakota elder, to be sculpted by Korczak Ziolkowski. It is operated by the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit organization.

The memorial master plan includes the mountain carving monument, an Indian Museum of North America, and a Native American Cultural Center. The monument is being carved out of Thunderhead Mountain, on land considered sacred by some Oglala Lakota, between Custer and Hill City. The sculpture's final dimensions are planned to be 641 feet (195 m) long and 563 feet (172 m) high. The arm of Crazy Horse will be 263 feet (80 m) long and the head 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 has been in progress since 1948 and is far from completion. If completed as designed, it will become the world's second tallest statue, after the Statue of Unity.

We had heard that Crazy Horse was closed.  After being here for several days, we decided to check to make sure and it was open. I had checked the website and they do a laser light show each evening on the side of the mountain.  We decided to go in the early evening and visit the museum, Visitors' Center, and the monument before the light show. 

The Indian artifacts, dress, and art were absolutely beautiful and very interesting. I loved seeing all of those. They also have a 20 minute film in the Visitors' Center that tells the history of how the monument started and where it is right now. They started the actual carving in 1948 and his face/head is completed.  They are now working on his arm and hand. This is going very slowly. It will not be completed in my lifetime nor my children's lifetime. I am not sure it will be completed in my grandchildren's lifetime. They finance the work through a non-profit foundation. The Federal Government had offered money, but the Foundation wanted to have the ability to have freedom on how and what they wanted to do with the monument, so they declined the money. They are proceeding on the carving as funds become available.

They started the laser light show in the 1990s. I don't think they have updated it since then. I was very underwhelmed with the light show. Along with not updating the technology on the light show, most of the narrative was the exact same thing as was in the movie at the Visitors' Center.

Anyway, overall, I enjoyed visiting here. The exhibits were great. The entry is by carload.  There were 4 in our car and the entry fee was $30.  If you have 2 in the car, the fee is $24. If I am still alive 20 years from now, I would like to come back and see how far they have gotten.