Mt Rushmore at Night

29 Jun 2010--We went back to Mt Rushmore last night, this time with John and Carol to see the night show they put on there. We headed up there fairly early, so that we could have dinner and do a little window shopping before going to the show. This is another town, about 2 miles form Mt Rushmore, that has no reason for being other than tourism.

We ate here at Ruby House.

And then we took a walk around the town, about a city block long, to see what they were selling that might be interesting. The most interesting and eye-catching things were the hand-painted uffalo and horses...I love the colors!

On up to Rushmore we went, just in time for the show to begin. Before the short movie though, they had a National Park Service guy talking to the crowd, basically hosting a quiz show on presidential trivia, which was fun. They then, in the movie, talk about each of the 4 presidents on the mountain, highlighting the most important facts about his service to America. While that is going on, it gets ever darker, and before you know it the top of the mountain, just the heads, are lit up.

When the movie was over, the Ranger called for all military and retired military people to come down to the stage, so while I stayed up top to take pictures, Cathy and John went down to the stage where they retired the flag for the evening. While they were down there everyone in the stands sang the national anthem...maybe you had to be there, but it was all quite patriotic and quite moving. John is the gentleman in the jacket to Cathy's right.

Here are John and Carol as we are leaving.

A few short videos...this one just talks quickly about the sculptor.

This sets the stage for the theme of the short movie.

And here are Cathy and John, with the Ranger talking about them and the crowd clapping.

God bless America!!!

Crazy Horse

28 Jun 2010--Went to the Crazy Horse Memorial yesterday, and we are not quite sure what to make of it. I think we are leaning towards thinking that it is a rip-off, but as they say on Fox News, we report, you decide! haha

The entrance sign clearly needs some work, and you probably have to enlarge the mountain picture to see what progress has been made on the mountain.

So here is the story. Back when Mt Rushmore was being carved, several Indian Tribal Chiefs got together and appointed Henry Standing Bear to find someone who would agree to sculpt one of their heroes, Crazy Horse, who had fought at Little Big Horn and refused to ever live on a reservation. In 1939 he wrote this letter to Korczak Ziolkowski, a renowned sculptor. Interestingly, Korczak was a Polish immigrant orphan from Boston, adopted by an Irish prize-fighter, who ran away around 14 yrs old and at one time actually worked on the presidents at Mt Rushmore.

Korczak agreed to do the sculpting, and spent a few years looking for an appropriate spot in the area to do it. In 1948, the dedication of this spot in the Black Hills took place.

This scale model is right in line with the mountain...you will see it later. The wording on the left basically explains why Crazy Horse is depicted in this way.

To their credit, there is a museum on the grounds with lots of interesting stuff, from Bio info on certain Indians to pottery. The 3rd Indian actually started, by mistake, the Massacre at Wounded Knee.

I never heard of this. These Indians stood, pegged to the ground, during battles. Talk about courage, or insanity, take your pick.

I love the women's dresses and the men's headdresses.

This was a room filled with Indian Nation Flags. I really liked the 2 I took separate pictures of. On the bottom, though, is that a Brit of Canadian flag piece?

This is the inscription behind the horse, and you can see here how the scale model lines up with the mountain in the background.

The model superimposed on the mountain. By the way, Mt Rushmore would fit in the upper third of this memorial...the head and hair would encompass all 4 presidents.

So here is the rest of the story. It has now been 62 years since this project was started, and only in 1998 was the head on the mountain unveiled, for the 50th anniversary. The sculptor and his wife had 10 children, the sculptor has died, but the wife and 7 of the children carry on the project. This is a privately funded endeavor. We were told that Korczak was a fierce individualist, and he thought that if something this grand was done, it should be funded privately, not by the government. Twice in the past the federal government has offered them $10 million, but the family has refused it. I asked 2 people at the information desk (1) Is there an end date projected for this? And (2) Are there any Native Americans involved with this anymore? The answer to both was NO; no date that they know of, and that only the family runs this now.

Our questions are: After 62 years, why is this all the progress that has been made?. Keep in mind that although this is by far bigger, it only took 14 years to complete Mt Rushmore. Doesn't it appear that the family has a vested interest in keeping this project (cash cow) going, seeing as most of the family is dependent on it for their living? Is there a chance that they turned down the government's offer of $10 million because then they might have to account for where all the money is going? And finally, at what point are Native Americans insulted by the length of this project, or has that already happened?

We are interested to see what others think...discuss!!!! P.S. Cathy says she doesn't think it is a rip-off, she knows it is!! haha