Custer to Spearfish

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We headed out of Custer, north on SD18 and quickly arrived at the Crazy Memorial. It is going to be a fantastic mountain sculpture when it’s finished but it will be some years yet. As the official website states “Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski and Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear officially started Crazy Horse Memorial June 3, 1948. The Memorial's mission is to honor the culture, tradition and living heritage of North American Indians.

Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation demonstrates its ongoing commitment to this promise by following these objectives:
• Continuing the progress on the world’s largest mountain sculpture; carving a memorial to the spirit of legendary Lakota leader Crazy Horse and his culture;
• Providing educational and cultural programming to encourage harmony and reconciliation among all people and nations;
• Acting as a repository for Native American artifacts, arts and crafts through the Indian Museum of North America and the Native American Educational & Cultural Center;
• And by establishing and operating, when practical, the American Indian University and Medical Training Center.”
It’s awesome now but it will get even better. Best wishes to those dedicated souls who refuse to take US Government money to construct the Memorial. It’s all happening with public donations.

We moved on to the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, a Huge National Icon and incredible. The South Dakota website states “This epic sculpture features the faces of four exalted American presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. South Dakota's Black Hills provide the backdrop for Mount Rushmore, the world's greatest mountain carving. These 60-foot high faces, 500 feet up, look out over a setting of pine, spruce, birch, and aspen in the clear western air.

Sculptor Gutzon Borglum began drilling into the 5,725-foot mountain in 1927. Creation of the Shrine of Democracy took 14 years and cost a mere $1 million, though it's now deemed priceless.”

After a short stay in Keystone, we moved on to Deadwood where we picnicked for a while before heading up Mount Moriah to visit the cemetery containing the graves of Wild Bill Hickcock, Calamity Jane and Seth Bullock among others. Boy it was hot and David was lathered by the time he got to the top.

With spare time, we decided go to Spearfish via the same named Canyon. It’s a gorgeous canyon but you don’t see much about it. Having botched up our Super 8 Motel booking, we were pleasantly surprised to be offered a much larger room next to the indoor pool. It had its own Jacuzzi, and lounge sofas - wow! You can’t ask for better than that.

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Photos

David at Crazy Horse Memorial
The model is what it will look like and the background shows what it's like now.