Today we went from the ridiculous to the sublime. Only in reverse order. We started the morning by driving to the Crazy Horse Monument and learning all about the largest sculpture in the world. That is, when it is completed. And nobody knows when that will be. Regardless, what has been done since 1949 is impressive.
Crazy Horse is a deserved hero of Indian history. He is known for his participation in the Battle of Little Bighorn, but his respect among his people is not built on that feat alone. Which is why he was chosen to represent Indian peoples when they contacted Korczak Ziolkowski in the late 1940s to create a memorial to their leaders. They wanted “white people” to know that Indians had their own heroes.
Korczak, as he is called, accepted the contract and moved to the Black Hills in 1947. At first he worked alone, assessing the mountain that would contain his sculpture, building crude scaffolding in the shape of steps from bottom to top, handling his own dynamite charges. When he sought hired hands, they all declined when they saw the scope of the work. However, one woman, Ruth Ross, continued to show up summer after summer until the two were married in 1950. Over the ensuing fourteen years, they had ten children; and Korczak had his work force.
We haven’t seen Mt. Rushmore yet, so we can’t really speak about scale firsthand. Still, we heard more than once that the revered national monument would fit in Crazy Horse’s head when the latter is finished.
After touring everything there was to see – and finding rare postcards of Chief Joseph, a personal project of mine – we drove to Custer State Park in search of wildlife. On the advice of the proprietress of the cabin where we’re staying we brought a bag of peeled carrots with us. Our goal was the Wildlife Road where various animals were in residence. We actually saw pronghorn and bison up close, but we’ve been almost anesthetized to these animals in the past couple weeks, since they’ve been such plentiful models for our camera.
However, about half way through the winding wildlife road we came upon burros. And this is what we brought the carrots for. We stopped, rolled down the windows, and – sure enough – the burros came almost on whispered command. They pushed their faces into the front windows of the car while we fed them carrots. It was hilarious. Before we’d emptied the bag of peeled carrots, we were surrounded by a burro herd believing that we held manna from Heaven.
For the record, burros have very soft mouths and don’t nip at your fingers like some animals do when you offer food. At the same time they bare their teeth, which are dirty and yellowed and probably would make a dentist cringe. This was definitely the ridiculous part of the day . . . and we loved every minute.
We loved the sublime tour of Crazy Horse Monument just as well.
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