We finally came upon Mount Rushmore. We did not go to the Visitors Center, as we had been there last year when we were here. We learned all about Gutzon Borglum and his historic masterpiece. I have to say that this is a very impressive sight!! The most spectacular program at Mount Rushmore is the evening lighting ceremony held in the amphitheater at 9 P.M. nightly. A ranger introduces a 20-minute movie on Borglum and his mountain and then, with the strains of the "Star Spangled Banner" in the background, huge banks of floodlights dramatically reveal the four presidential faces, stark white against the black, starry Dakota sky.
The colossal Crazy Horse mountain carving in progress is the world's largest sculpture. The memorial is a tribute to the North American Indian. The carving was first conceived as a vision of Boston-born sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski in 1939. The sculptor had received a letter from Henry Standing Bear, a Lakota Sioux Indian Chief from South Dakota. Standing Bear had been watching progress on the American Presidents at Mount Rushmore, and he longed for an equally powerful memorial that would remind the world "that the Red Man has great heroes, too".Korczak went to work creating his 563x641 foot sculpture on June 3, 1948. He would spend the next 36 years of his life blasting away 7,400,000 tons of granite to rough out virtually the entire figure, in the round. Progress was painfully slow. Unlike Mount Rushmore, which used a big crew it was just Korczak - and later Korczak and his sons.
Korczak died in 1982 with the mountain only roughed in, but he passed along to his wife and their 10 sons and daughter his vision and passion for his mountain.
The 88-foot-high face of Crazy Horse was dedicated on June 3, 1998, 50 years to the day after Korczak's first blast. Now, 60 years after Korczak started carving, and 26 years after his death, work still continues on the world's largest sculpture. The dimensions are staggering. A mountain-sized statue of an Indain man and a spirited warhorse that's as long as a cruise ship and taller then a 60-story skyscraper!
Work continues on the mountain every day. From time to time you get to witness the sight, sound, and concussion of a blast, a glimpse of history in the making. When will the Memorial be finished? It's impossible to say.
Well that is all for now.... Hope all is well with everyone.... Love,
Candy and Johnny
