South Dakota: Crazy Horse and Jewel Cave

       After getting dropped off in Hill City, we stayed at a cute, little bed and breakfast. Jaime is a big fan of bed and breakfasts, so I always make sure to work one into a trip. This one was filled with antiques and knicknacks of all sorts. The owners, Sam and Linda, are wonderful people with quite a tale on how they first met over a dating service back in the day! They pointed out a wonderful place to eat...so we trudged over to the Alpine Inn, a fine German restaurant. The dinner choice was simple but elegant, what size cut of steak do you want?...and it came with a baked potato and some fixins! My kind of place! Good meal to recover the energy too! We picked out a movie from Sam and Linda's library choosing North by Northwest...an old Cary Grant classic as it has a famous escape scene at Mt. Rushmore which we thought was quite applicable to our surroundings. After a wonderful omelette breakfast in the morning, it was back on the bike for the trip towards Custer.
     After 10 miles, we came up to Crazy Horse Mountain. It is hard to comprehend the size of the sculpture at first glance. Started June 3, 1948, it will be many, many years yet before it is completed. The monument is a staggering 563 feet tall or 8 feet taller than the Washington D.C. monument. It is also 641 feet long.  In fact, the entire Mt. Rushmore sculpture could fit in Crazy Horse's hair! Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski has long since died, but his wife and children continue the inspirational work. Korczak Ziolkowski, an American of Polish descent, first burst onto the American scene by winning first place for his sculpture at the 1939 World's Fair. Soon after Mt. Rushmore was completed, Korczak received a letter from Chief Standing Bear who invited the great sculptor out with these words..."My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know the red man has great heroes, also." Korczak arrived in the Black Hills on May 3, 1947 to accept Standing Bear's invitation. A strong believer in the free enterprise system, he felt Crazy Horse should be built by the interested public and not the taxpayer. Twice he turned down offers for federal funding. He also knew that the project was larger than any one person's lifetime and left detailed plans to be used with his scale models to continue the project. Remarkable too is Korczak's dedication having arrived in the Black Hills at age 40 with only $174 to his name, and having to start the project alone without modern equipment!
       Korczak’s unflagging dedication to Crazy Horse’s construction is incredible. But even more powerful is his respect for the Lakota people. In May 1949, he wrote:

Crazy Horse was born on Rapid Creek in the Black Hills of South Dakota in about 1842. While at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, under a flag of truce, he was stabbed in the back by an American soldier and died September 6, 1877 – age 35(?).
Crazy Horse defended his people and their way of life in the only manner he knew.
BUT ––
Only after he saw the Treaty of 1868 broken. This treaty, signed by the President of the United States, said, in effect:
As long as rivers run and grass grows and trees bear leaves, Paha Sapa – the Black Hills of Dakota – will forever be the sacred land of the Sioux Indians.
Only after he saw his leader, Conquering Bear, exterminated by treachery.
Only after he saw the failure of the government agents to bring required treaty guarantees, such as meat, clothing, tents and necessities for existence which they were to receive for having given up their lands and gone to live on the reservations.
Only after he saw his peoples’ lives and their way of life ravaged and destroyed.
Crazy Horse has never been known to have signed a treaty or touched the pen.
Crazy Horse, as far as the scale model is concerned, is to be carved not so much as a lineal likeness but more as a memorial to the spirit of Crazy Horse –– to his people. With his left hand thrown out pointing in answer to the derisive question asked by a white man, ‘Where are your lands now?’ he replied,
‘My lands are where my dead lie buried.’”
     Crazy Horse is so much more than just a sculpture though. There is a fantastic Visitor Center with an incredible documentary, a sculptor's museum, a Native American museum with Lakota artisans making crafts and much, much more. We stayed a couple of hours and then left to finish the ride to Custer and then drive to catch the last tour for Jewel Cave. We returned to Crazy Horse in the evening for a wonderful dinner of buffalo stew where we got to see the sculptor's wife! We then took in the famous Legends in light show...a very inspirational laser light show on the mountain after dark. It is well worth seeing and the image of Crazy Horse riding his majestic stallion leaves you hoping he is still riding out there somewhere! As Jaime remarked, "Ride on Crazy Horse, ride on!"
     I've yet to mention much of Jewel Cave...it actually was quite a remarkable visit in itself if dwarfed by the experience of Crazy Horse. Jewel Cave is actually the 2nd longest cave system in the world at 151 miles long. We only actually saw 1/2 mile of it, but we were 38 stories underground!  38 stories, it's a wonder how people even find stuff like this! Actually it was found because it has two natural openings and it is a breathing cave meaning that wind flows, sometimes in excess of 50 mph. through the cave. That makes quite a whistle upon exiting a small opening which is how it first got discovered. Crystals, box-like shapes, cave wierdness like cave popcorn and cave bacon dot the route. Explorations of the cave continue on today. Enjoy the pics!