(^92) South Dakota
Custer (1620m)– Rapid City (976m) - 87 km
The first stop of the day was at the immensely impressive Crazy
Horse Memorial—a mountain carving of Crazy Horse (an Oglala
Lakota warrior).
The monument is under construction and carved out of Thunderhead
Mountain, land considered sacred by Oglala Lakota. The sculpture's
final dimensions are planned at 641 feet (195 m) wide and 563 feet
(172 m) high. The head of Crazy Horse will be 87 feet (27 m) tall. By
comparison, the heads of the four US Presidents at Mount Rushmore
are only 60 feet (18 m) high. The monument has been in progress
since 1948 and won't be completed in our or the next generation's
lifetime.
Then I was off to Mount Rushmore to see the colossal statues of
Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt. These world-famous
statues were unimpressive after seeing Crazy Horse, but the Crazy
Horse Memorial will make anything look unimpressive. While there, I
understood the deep sadness conveyed in following article by
National Geographic:
South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore has a strange, scandalous history
(nationalgeographic.com)
leana
(Leana)
#1