Rapid City

We arrived in Rapid City, South Dakota yesterday after a long drive from Denver across the prairie. The prairie is fairly monotonous but even so is very lush and green, more so than we expected in the heat wave we are having. 

As we approached the Black Hills we learned that the origin of the name is the black appearance of the Hills from a distance. This is due to the very dark colour of the Ponderosa Pines that dominate many of the hills.

Today we visited the Crazy Horse Memorial and Mount Rushmore. The stories behind these sculptures are fascinating. Our tour Guide, Lisa, has a wealth of knowledge to share.

Photo 1: Some welcome relief from the flat prairie. This formation and others reminded us a little of the New England Ranges up Tenterfield way.

Photos 2 and 3: only in America J. How safe the pets are!

Photo 4: The Black Hills of South Dakota. The camera didn’t quite catch the dark colour. These hills are beautiful to drive through.

Photo 5: A close up of the only part of the Crazy Horse Memorial completed so far. The Memorial is privately funded and is the work of the Ziolkowski family. At the request of the Lakota Tribe – who hold the Black Hills sacred – sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski started this project in 1948. Chief Crazy Horse was one of the leaders of the Native American force that defeated the army of General Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. But the Memorial is meant to represent and help conserve the culture, tradition and living heritage of Native Americans. So the site includes a repository of artifacts, and the organisation funds a cultural centre and educational institutions for Native Americans.

Photo 6: Timeline of work on the Memorial to date. So much is left to be done, as you can see from photo 7 which shows what it will look like when finished. Not likely in our lifetime! It would be finished quicker if they took federal funding but the Tribe refuses to do so. Probably a smart move because they want to keep control of it all.

Photo 8: Mount Rushmore viewed from the Grand View Terrace. The flags are those of all 50 US States.

Photo 9: The sculptures up close. The original design would have shown all four Presidents from the waste up, but when work stopped in 1941 when funds ran out it was decided not to continue.