Crazy Horse Memorial of Black Hills, South Dakota

The fact that it is the largest sculpture in progress on the face of a mountain in the world is what makes the Crazy Horse Memorial such a unique and remarkable artwork. Located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, seventeen miles southwest of Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse has been nearly sixty years in the carving, and to this day, visitors can still watch artists at work, as they contribute to the memorial meant to honor the culture, tradition, and heritage of North American Indians.

Native American elders of the Lakota tribe, including Chief Henry Standing Bear, commissioned the project in 1948 with Korczak Ziolkowski brought in as the sculptor. Work began on June 3^rd of that year. When Korczak died in 1982, his wife, Ruth, and other family members kept the project going through the nonprofit Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation.

At the outset of his work, Korczak vowed that the sculpture would be a humanitarian project, not just a huge mountain carving. This vow was honored with the growth of on-site educational additions, such as museums, and the amount of informational facilities and exhibits has grown with each additional Crazy Horse project taken on by the sculpture's artists.

Today, the Crazy Horse visitor site contains a forty thousand square foot Welcome Center, the Indian Museum of North American, the Native American Educational and Cultural Center, on-site theaters, the log home studio and workshop of the current sculptor, galleries both indoors and outdoors, a gift shop, a restaurant and snack bars, and a veranda for viewing the sculpture-in-progress.

The crew working on the Crazy Horse Memorial today uses precise explosions to remove and form the shape of the mountain. Since 1998, when the face of Crazy Horse was dedicated, the work has turned to the blocking of the horse's head. It took fifty years to get Crazy Horse carved into stone, and it will likely take another fifty or more years to get the horse head in place. Then, a new task will be undertaken to add to, and embellish, the sculpture.

While in progress, the Crazy Horse Memorial will continue to draw people together to learn more about Native American history, and see the works of some of the modern Native American designers and artists whose crafts are on display at the memorial's museums. At no other place may history and the making of history come together so beautifully.

If you would like to visit the Crazy Horse Memorial, it is just off US Highway 16 in the Black Hills. If you would like to find out more about the memorial, check it out on the website at http://www.crazyhorse.org/. There is even a live webcam where you can watch the artists' progress.