Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Sturgis

September 13, 2008
Our journey continued this morning on a crisp clear fall day in Rapid City, SD. We were so excited because we were finally going to see Mt. Rushmore! We traveled through the Black Hills National Forest, which is just breathtaking and arrived at our destination a little before lunch. We were awestruck. You see this on television and in movies, but in person, it is quite a bit different. There is a reverence and incredible respect for the men who rendered this marvelous memorial to our great presidents. I was able to take pictures of couples and families while John ventured up to get a closer shot with the camera and everyone I spoke to had the same feeling. One of the most impressive things that happened while I was there was that most of the people there were our age and I was amazed at the people in jeans and Harley shirts who were old. Then I went in the restroom and looked in the mirror and realized that none of them were any older than me and if they were, not by much. I surmised that our generation doesn’t know that we are aging because we are so young at heart. Everyone I talked to was excited as any child would be. Very, very cool.
Next we went to the Crazy Horse Memorial, which has a very intriguing history. The sculptor of this massive statue was Korczak Kiolkowski, whose statue of Paderewski: Study of an Immortal won first prize at the 1939 World’s Fair. Chief Standing Bear of the Lakota Indian tribe in the Black Hills heard of this and commission Korczak to memorialize one of their heroes as the Americans had immortalized their presidents on Mt. Rushmore. The picture we snapped is blurred, but the face is complete and work continues on the rest of the statue. Korczak made this his life’s work and left a wife and 10 children, 7 of whom are continuing the work. It is amazing. Korczak refused any government assistance because he believed in free enterprise and wanted the statue to be paid for with the people’s money, not the government’s. John and I were just floored when we watched the movie about this family. They are relentless in their task and the finished product will be over 500 feet tall and 600 feet long. Thankfully there is a model of the finished product on display and we did get a good picture of that for you all to see. John also got a good picture of the twin stallion bronze statue that graces the grounds of the museum. We ate lunch at the Laughing Waters Café and had Buffalo Stew and some sort of fried bread, supposedly eaten by the Indians. Crazy Horse it pointing out over the Black Hills and when asked where his people were by a white man, he replied, “My lands are where my dead lie buried”. Too chill bumpy.
We then drove through Boulder Canyon to Deadwood, SD and spotted a HUGE Elk in the woods. His rack was at least 5 feet tall and he was just massive. We couldn’t stop (a 2 lane road) but I wish you all could have seen him.
We arrived in Deadwood, where Wild Bill Hickok is buried and it started a drizzling rain and it became quite windy so we didn’t stop and continued on to Sturgis, SD and landed, once again, in the wonderful, comfortable, HI Express where we are going to visit the Harley Davis Hall of Fame and Museum in the morning before we leave for Montana.
You can probably tell we are having a ball but we are tuckered out and are glad to have a short day.