July 4 (cont.)

Just 30 minutes from Mount Rushmore is the Crazy Horse monument. The entire four president sculpture can fit into just the head of Crazy Horse in this mammoth – but unfinished – artwork.
Admission is $10 per person, a little steep for someone on a road trip budget but it was well worth the money. In fact, it’s mainly these admission fees and donations at the museum that funds the continued work on Crazy Horse since no government funds have been or will be used at the site, as according to the wishes of Korczak Ziolkowski who started the project in 1948.
Crazy Horse was a Lakota American Indian who played a large role in the Battle of Little Big Horn. He never signed a treaty with the white man and government. He was eventually stabbed in the back at a surrender.
He is known for saying: My land is where my people are buried.
The Lakota wanted a monument like Rushmore to show their heroes and honor all Indians, so they hired Ziolkowski.
He started by himself, well, him and a few mountain goats to keep him company, but then he had a family who now continues to finish the monument.
The face is finished now and there is an outline for Crazy Horse’s arm and his horse.
When finished, it will be seen from the front and the back, and will have a quote next to it.
The memorial has regular night laser shows, an interesting movie, and tours to near the mountainous sculpture, also in the Black Hills.
There is sporadic dynamite blasting and sculpting, but I predict this won’t be finished until at least 2040.

Quote of the day: “I’m picking nuts. That’s wack. Are you nuts?” ~ a strange radio commercial with cartoon squirrels