Needles Highway and Crazy Horse
Mike Here
After a bowl of cereal and a stop for a turnover at the local bakery in Custer, S. Dakota, we headed for Custer State Park and the Needles Highway. What an awesome drive! Saw lots of wildlife along the way which we had never seen before including big horn sheep, mountain goats and also whitetail deer and turkeys. The best was watching cars parked all over the road and people everywhere trying to get pictures of the mountain goats. They jumped from pinnacle to pinnacle with ease while the people attempted to get their picture.
Mountain Goat
One Shy Whitetail Deer
Big Horn Sheep
Also, entertaining was watching people trying to get pictures of cars coming through the tunnels with very little room to spare. Mary caused her own personal traffic jam by standing in the middle of the road following a car through.
Tunnel Vision
The real highlights were the Needles themselves. Just tremendous.
Sylvan Lake
Watched some climbers scaling a pinnacle until Mary couldn't watch anymore.
Mountain Climbers
Went into Hill City for lunch and I had a Buffalo Burger. These little towns in the Black Hills are really nice.
Went into Hill City for lunch and I had a Buffalo Burger. These little towns in the Black Hills are really nice.
Wine for the Wine a Bit People
Went to see Crazy Horse after lunch and was not too impressed until we got up to it and saw its real size. All 4 presidents would fit next to Crazy Horses head. You have no appreciation for what is involved in a project like that until you go on the bus ride and listen to the driver and go through the visitor center. Millions of tons of rock have to be removed by blasting just to get down to where the actual sculpting begins.
Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse
This project started in 1948 and none of us will see its completion. Of course Judy needed to get her Rock from the blasting of the mountain.
Got back to Calamity Peak Lodge and we all reorganized our cars. It is difficult to find things when you are moving stuff in and out every day. Afterward, Judy and I took our car downtown for gas and a carwash. Later, when Jim & Mary tried to wash their's, it was broken. They will have to follow us tomorrow. We don't want any of their dust blowing back on our clean car. LOL. Tomorrow we head for Devils Tower, Wyoming.
Crazy People
Information on the Needles Highway
Deemed “impossible” to construct by its critics, the Needles highway—a National Scenic Byway—was completed in 1922 and includes 14 miles of sharp turns, low tunnels, and impressive granite spires.
Chief Henry (Standing Bear) wrote to sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski in 1939 urging him to visit the Black Hills and carve a mountain sculpture that would honor the American Indian. He said, "My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know that the red man has great heroes, too."
Fifty-five years after Ziolkowski began carving the Crazy Horse Memorial, his family still continues the dream and work progresses on the world's largest mountain sculpture. I was surprised that only about 10 people are working on this project. Seven are children of the sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski and they are still carrying on with the project. Korczak’s wife, who is in her 80's, is still in charge and from what we were told nothing get started or finished without her approval. She was a number of years younger than Korczak.
Crazy Horse was started in 1949 while Korczak was 40 years of age. Knowing that he would not be alive to see the completion he made three books of instructions as to how the sculpture was to be constructed. When completed it will be 563 feet tall and will be 641 feet long. Crazy horse will have a hand built feather that is 44 feet tall
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