A
mammoth, as-yet-unfinished monument carved out of Thunderhead Mountain in the
Black Hills. It is located 17 miles southwest of
Mount Rushmore. The original idea was conceived by the
Lakota Indian Chiefs in 1939. Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, who worked on Rushmore, was contracted to work on the
monument. Ziolkowski bought the land with his own money, refused to take a
salary for the project, and declared the project
non-profit and to be built without
government tax money.
Blasting began in 1948, and continues to this day, despite Ziolkowski's death in 1982 after seven-and-a-half million tons of stone had been removed. In 1998, the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation dedicated the completion of Crazy Horse's face on the 50th anniversary of the first blasting. When completed, the Crazy Horse Memorial will be carved completely in three dimensions (unlike Rushmore), stand 563 feet high and 641 feet long, and will be the largest mountain carving in history.
Admission to the memorial and visitor's center is nine dollars, nineteen for everyone in a car. Admission is free for Native Americans, and members of the military, Boy Scouts, or Girl Scouts in uniform.