We all know about Mt. Rushmore and the US presidents featured there, but few of us know about the epic struggle to build a similar monument to Crazy Horse.
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History In the Hills
Crazy Horse is revered as a great warrior among the Lakota Sioux. In 1876, he defeated the US Army in a two-day fight that is now known as Custer’s Last Stand. It was one of the greatest victories among Native Americans at the time.
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How Crazy Horse Memorial Began
The great Native American leader Chief Henry Standing Bear, a Lakota Sioux and cousin of Crazy Horse, watched the building of Mt. Rushmore and decided to create a similar memorial to his great relative.
He contacted Korczak Ziolkowski, a well-known sculptor who had worked on Mount Rushmore.
Ziolkowski began working on the memorial in 1948. He quickly became obsessed with his mission to create the memorial.
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Moving Mountains
He was still working on it in his late 60s when 60 Minutes did a news report about his efforts.
“It’s a big mountain,” says Monique Ziolkowski, Korczak’s daughter. Monique has kept the dream alive by continuing to oversee teams that blast, carve and sculpt the mountain.
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The Dream Is Alive
Today, three of his children and four grandchildren are still working on the project. They use admission fees and donations to fund the multimillion-dollar project.
Monique says her father would be proud of their efforts.
“By carving Crazy Horse, if I can give back to the Indian some of his pride and create a means to keep alive his culture and heritage,” he said once, “my life will have been worthwhile.”
Crazy Horse Memorial is located 9 miles south of Hill City, South Dakota, which is 17 miles southwest of Mount Rushmore National Memorial. It is open year-round.
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