Crazy Horse

Another huge mountain sculpture in granite. In the '40's, Souix tribal leaders decided that the Red Man needed to know that they had heroes also. An artist named Karsaik(sic) who had experience at Rushmore was contracted for the work and the leaders had to choose a subject. Crazy Horse was selected because he had never signed a treaty or lived on a reservation. The artist began work by himself and had to build laddering all the way up and then rig a system of piping for compressed air to run drills. For the first five years he worked alone, carting all his equipment, dynamite etc. up the ladders to the top. A couple college girls showed up one year to volunteer their time and he married one of them. They had ten children over time, and after the old man died in '82, they carried on the work. It has been financed privately with no state or federal funding, and their goal is to keep it that way. The head, 90' tall, is completed and much of the over burden covering the horse has been removed, but a lot of work remains. After that, we road a number of the scenic byways in the area, including Custer State Park, which has a large buffalo herd. The roads are spectacular with a number of narrow tunnels, two of which exit directly into a view of Mt. Rushmore.
We went to a cowboy dinner with Tom and Joyce Gerlitz followed by a show by the Riders in the Sky, a grammy winning cowboy group who sing old songs with a mix of humor. They were very good. From there to the laser light show at Crazy Horse Monument, which was also quite good. It's light until 10:00 pm and again by before 5;00 AM. Hard to get enough sleep.
Something we started seeing at Devil's Tower, is an Rv that is half RV and half horse trailer. Horse people go to facilities with stables and ride the state and national park trails on horse back. Everybody around here has horses and the trails go forever.