Mount Rushmore & Crazy Horse

A trip to the Black Hills wouldn't be complete without a stop at Mount Rushmore. Three million people each year visit the Mount Rushmore monument. Sculpted by Danish-American Gutzon Borglum and his son Lincoln Borglum, Mount Rushmore features 60-foot sculptures of the heads of the four United States presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. George Washington represents the birth of the United States. Thomas Jefferson, the growth. Lincoln, the preservation. And Theodore Roosevelt, the development of the nation. The monument took 14 years to complete. Mount Rushmore was about what I expected and had seen in photos; however, it was still really neat to see in person. We enjoyed the walking path that allowed us to get closer to the monument (Dad said this didn’t exist when he visited as a youngster). We all thought the evening lighting ceremony was a neat experience, too. I think Mount Rushmore is something every American should see!

Our next stop was the Crazy Horse Monument, a mountain sculpture in progress of the Lakota warrior chief astride a stallion with his arm and pointed hand stretched out over the horse's mane. The monument has been in progress for quite some time now. Oh, let's just say some 66 years. Sixty-six years?! What?!? The work began in 1948 when the Lakota people commissioned sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski to build the monument to honor their people. The monument, when finished, will be much, much larger than Mount Rushmore (641 feet long and 563 feet high, to be precise). The project does not receive government funding and is paid through private funding managed by a nonprofit organization. I realize these two factors have most likely caused this project to span six decades. However, it would be nice (especially for the Lakota people) to see it completed. We all agreed that we aren't confident we'll see it finished in our lifetime.