South Dakota-Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse (08-01-12)

Mount Rushmore: In the mid 1920s America was living high on the hog and feeling her oats. Life was good in the USA,  and people wanted to celebrate it in a big way. The idea was formed to carve huge likenesses of American heroes into the granite in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  There was only one sculptor up to the task-Gutzon Borglum.



Borglum  decided if he were to take on the task, the monument would need to showcase the national figures who helped our country advance as far as it had, and he chose George Washington, Thomas Jefferson,  Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt as those most responsible.
         

 

When Gutzon started this project he was 57, and he worked on it until his death 17 years later,  in 1941.  His son put some finishing touches on the statue, but with the pressures of WWII growing, the sculpture was declared "finished" soon thereafter.

               




In his workshop onsite, Gutzon started by building a 12:1 inch scale model of the sculpture, from which he took precise measurements for carving the mountain.  He first had to blast 500 tons of rock from the surface, to reach the carveable granite beneath it.  During the course of the creation, more than 400 workers were employed in various roles.  90% of the sculpting was done by precision dynamite blasts, and only the finishing touches were done by jack hammer and hand tools. 

 

The finished product would  never have looked like the model because there wasn't enough granite suitable for carving to finish the lower portion of the figures.

 

Crazy Horse:

60 some odd years ago the Native Indians decided that they had heroes too, and needed a memorial honoring all American Indians.   The result was the Crazy Horse Memorial, the largest monument in the world.


Crazy Horse is being carved into a granite mountain about 15 miles from Mt. Rushmore. 40 years later the carving is no where near finished, which I thought was odd, until I went there and learned more about it. First of all, no public funds are being used for the project- all monies come from donations and admission fees.  That made me feel better about the $10 per person entrance fee, but I still felt a bit ripped off when we got in the gate and realized that to see the monument  up close  (we were still a mile from it), we would have to pay another $4 each to take the bus ride.  Nope. I guess that's what the Telephoto lens is for.

The other reason it's taking so long to carve is the sheer scope of the project. They removed 1.5 million tons of rock before reaching granite suitable for carving.  With a 7 ft. tall eyebrow, the finished sculpture of Crazy Horse  will stand 563 ft. tall. The entire carving at Mt. Rushmore would fit into Crazy Horse’s head.

             


scale model with carving in the background



Crazy Horse would never allow himself to be photographed, so its not an actual physical likeness of him, but more a composite of a typical Indian Warrior Chief. Crazy Horse was at the battle of Little Bighorn, and in addition to being a warrior chief, was a champion of the Indian way of life.  He refused to live on a reservation, and never signed a single treaty. He was killed at the age of 37, just after surrendering to General Cook.          





There is a laser light show at dark every night- Paul and I stuck around to watch it, but ended up leaving 5 minutes into the show- it was pretty lame. I think the carving itself is/will be awesome, but the visitor center seems to be too focused on the sculptor, and not enough on the subject matter of the monument.

Little Bighorn (Hardin, MT 07-25-12)

Like the words “remember the Alamo”, I think most of us know the words “Custer’s last stand” and the “Battle of Little Bighorn”.  Not being a huge history buff myself, I admit I didn’t know that much about Bighorn or Custer- before today, anyways. And, not being a talented history writer, I won’t delve into too many details, but will try to condense the story down into a couple of paragraphs.  I am sure my brother and my son, the  history buffs in the family, will cringe.
George Custer was well known for his military exploits during the civil war.  He fought in the first battle of that war, First Battle of Bull Run, as well as the battle of Gettysburg, and was present at the surrender of General Lee at the conclusion of the war.  He was then sent west to fight the Indian Wars.
So, what led up to this battle?
At that point in time, most American Indians were living on reservations, but had “permission” to roam further west, in the Unceded Territory, hunting the more plentiful game.  Part of the the Lakota (Sioux) Reservation included the Black Hills of South Dakota, an area so important to their culture that as part of the signed treaty, the Black Hills could never be inhabited by white settlers.
In 1874, with the Euro-American economy in a mess, Grant sent Custer to investigate the rumors that the Black Hills were full of gold.   Unfortunately for the Sioux, including Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, there was gold, causing the area to be overrun with Euro-Americans.  The ioux and Cheyenne began leaving the reservations, attacking the settlers, and pressure was put on the government to punish the “hostiles”.  After giving the Indians a month to comply with an order to return to their reservations, the army was sent to deal with those who refused.
    On June 25th 1876, the 7th cavalry, consisting of about 600 men, and led by Custer, discovered a Lakota village along the banks of the Little Bighorn River.  Scouts had informed Custer that this was a huge village, and that, by the way, the Indians had seen the tracks of the cavalry, so were aware that they were closing in.  Fearing that the Indians would flee the area, Custer made the decision to attack immediately. 


Little Bighorn Battlefield



the headstones read "____fell here on June 25 1876,  while defending the Lakota way of life"

He divided the regiment into 3 groups, each section approaching the village from a different vantage point.  Instead of running, the Sioux warriors  met the  soldiers head on.  In fact, had Custer paid more attention to the scout, he may have devised a different plan, because in fact there were almost 8000 Indians, more than 1500 of them warriors. 
The two groups led by Major Reno and Captain Benteen were both overpowered and were quickly pushed back.  Neither leader could find Custer, and ordered their troops to withdraw. 

In the meantime, Custer, whose exact movements have never been determined, was also repulsed and pushed up onto a small hill, where he took his “last stand”.  Cheyenne Chief Two Moon later recalled that “we circled all around them- swirling like water around a stone.” Custer and all of the soldiers under his direct command, including his brother, were killed.

When the Indians realized that reinforcements for the troops were on their way, they themselves withdrew and disbanded.  Although the battle was a decisive victory for the Indians,  within a year or so, most of them were back on the reservation or had moved into Canada.  In the end, they lost their way of life and their sense of freedom.