When I was 11 years old, my family and I went to Mount Rushmore on vacation. My father had heard about Korczak and his Crazy Horse Monument and took us to see it. When we met Korczk, he took us on a tour of his home and studio that faced the mountain. He rolled out a completed alabaster sculpture of his vision for the Crazy Horse Monument. The sculpture was rolled out on rails like you’d see in a mine. The outstretched hand of the sculpture pointed directly to the mountain. It was beautiful and impressive. When we met him, he’d already been blasting away at it for 17 years and only managed to create an L-shape in the side of the mountain. Today, that would be the face and the top of the arm. Even as an 11 yr. old, I realized he wouldn’t live long enough to see its completion. So I asked him who would finish it and he told me he had 10 children! Now, 60 years later, I’m thinking I won’t live long enough to see its completion! But I never forgot meeting him, his beautiful sculpture and his vision. That was a great vacation trip.
I was there in 77. We asked if he was there and were informed that he doesn't greet the public any longer. The white sculptured model of it was on the deck of I beleive was the visitor center, and was posed in the same direction as the one on the mountain, so you could stand behind the model and line it up with the the one on the mountain. I remember the driveway was lined with some of his world acclaimed sculpted busts and all their noses were broken off by a hammer wielding drunken son in law. While returning to our car in the lot, a flatbed semi was being backed into the woods next to us. A large old man with long hair and a long beard was hollering at the young man driving the truck that if he couldn't listen and do a better job driving that he would do it himself, quite a spectacle. My soon to be wife mlm looked at me excitedly and said...it's him! and it was.
The detail and dedication is very impressive. It’s coming together just as Korczak and Standing Bear’s vision foretold. This is a living masterpiece. RIP Ruth K & Casimir
Judging by the progress vs time... I would say about 80~90 years maybe sooner if techniques and all out funding happen. This will be the worlds largest carving in stone.
I have visited that place, but didn't get close to the actual sculpture. I figure that at the rate they're progressing on it, they'll have it completed in another 200-300 years.
It will be a stunning tribute to the Sioux when finished. However, not sure why Crazy Horse was chosen as the subject of the monument. Red Horse and Sitting Bull had more impact on the West's history than Crazy Horse.
One would think that the native americans who live around there would be either working there or volunteering to help. Only 6 guys are working working on it. Theres a lot of stuff extra help could do that would let the guys focus on the detail stuff . What i missing here.
Don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings by offering some criticism, because I know the immense work it's taking to accomplish this, but with the design change it looks like he's petting his horse rather than pointing.
Just like Rushmore, this "monument" is a monstrously grotesque scar on the beauty of the natural landscape, and an insult to the native inhabitants. Shame, shame, shame!
Medieval cathedrals were often constructed over multiple generations. The master masons who designed them often never lived to see their completion. Projects such as these have been rarely seen since. Our technological progress makes it easy to fit our ambitions into a single life. We lack the patience to try for anything loftier. And worse, we grow accustomed to it. Economic incentives limit our outlook to the next quarter. Looming crises are dismissed as problems for the next generation. We loose the far sighted perspective that men once had. But were we to recover that perspective, what great things we could accomplish, for ourselves and the world.
WOW! You can see the hand now. The detail is incredible! The thumb nail and fingernails... Such a majestic place. So glad they carved this monument honoring Crazy Horse and are still working on it. Can’t wait to see it in person
I remember seeing a show titled They Said it Couldn't be Done back in the early 70's when this guy was just starting the project. Impressive how it has progressed since then.
Wikipedia: Crazy Horse (c. 1840 - September 5, 1877) was a Lakota war leader of the Oglala band. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by white American settlers on Native American territory and to preserve the traditional way of life of the Lakota people. His participation in several famous battles of the Black Hills War on the northern Great Plains, among them the Fetterman Fight in 1866, in which he acted as a decoy, and the *Battle of the Little Bighorn* in 1876, in which he led a war party to victory, earned him great respect from both his enemies and his own people. In September 1877, four months after surrendering to U.S. troops under General George Crook, Crazy Horse was fatally wounded by a bayonet-wielding military guard while allegedly resisting imprisonment at Camp Robinson in present-day Nebraska. He was honored by the U.S. Postal Service in 1982 with a 13¢ Great Americans series postage stamp.
I'll be dad,for the 1st time, in 2 months.Hope one day I'll be there to visit that masterpiece with my daughter.Can't wait❤. All the best from all those who are working there at the moment. Greetings from Italy .
Crazy Horse did not want to be photographed while he lived (and wasn't, so we actually don't even know what he looked like for sure) so I kind of doubt he'd want an image in his name be the reason for the carving up of a mountain on sacred Lakota land.
I was working for Phillips66 Oil Co. in Rapid City SD in 1974 and Korczak Ziolkowski was using our fuel and lubricants in all his equipment . I spent a day with him on the mountain and the evening at his home. He drove me all over the area in his jeep and we drank whiskey in his living room. His wife Ruth brought it to us straight, in water glass tumblers!! (after a day with no meals....ugh!) He was a wonderful guy, full of enthusiasm and loving life and his gigantic project. He knew that he would not live to finish the sculpture , and he said so. He hoped that his family and foundation would complete it someday. However, nearby Rapid City is the location of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology , one of the premier hard rock mining engineering schools in the nation. I studied Civil Engineering there in the years following my visits with Korczak, and expert geophysical scientists and mining engineers at the school had determined that the Crazy Horse sculpture could never be completed because the rock the mountain is comprised of is not monolithic or uniform and could never support the type of sculpture that Ziolkowski envisioned. I can clearly see that coming true in this video made 50 years after I stood on the top of the mountain with Korczak. There's been very little change or progress in 50 years, and what has been done bears only a passing resemblance to the models and drawings Ziolkowski made originally. Too bad - His was a magnificent vision , but the raw material just was not then, and never will be there to make it real.
My grandparents all lived in South Dakota, from the 30s to the early 2000s (they live long up there), and my paternal GPS lived in Spearfish and Rapid, and I grew up going to the area including the Crazy Horse memorial. I’m amazed, now in my 60s, how it’s come along but still has so far to go. It’s a difficult thing to carve out a mountainside of rock, but it’s looking great.
I said it before and I'll say it again: This project will trundle on for another century and be milked by the powers that run it and by their children and their children's children. It will never finish. Countless sums will be spent by credulous sight-seers and fill the coffers of somebody or something. I'd like to see the retrospective that is published when the whole effort is quietly shut-down and everybody leaves and the Crazy Horse is eventually covered with any foliage that can take root in the little pockets of soil that will, eventually, collect in the hollows.
Exactly. We were there in 2017, and got the distinct impression that their main goal was collecting the admission fees rather than the completion of the project.
Most people don't realize that the origional builder said the government will never have their hands in this creation. The government took their land but not their dignity.
I remember watching a sixty minutes program on this at least 60:years ago. This seems like a money grab by the natives. You pay to get in, then you pay again if you want get close and see the slowest work on any project anywhere. Not worth seeing.
Wife and I saw it in July of 73, while visiting Mt Rushmore and the Black Hills. Impressive vision - Doubt if it will be done in my lifetime, as I am 80 now.
I was there in the early 90's marveling at the magnificence of this undertaking...warms my Heart that it's being taken ( albeit in baby steps ) to the next level !
The estimated time frames for building Egyptian Pyramids is 15 to 30 years!!! 4000 years later, with superior technology and 76 years of working this is the result???
It would be very cool if there was an inside look at the Architectural/Civil engineering on this mountain. The careful process on how it’s done, and modeling a very nice video.
The sheer scale of this work is almost Biblical. Perhaps in 300 years and $100M it might be finished. But no one even born 2Day will see this finished.
When I was 11 years old, my family and I went to Mount Rushmore on vacation. My father had heard about Korczak and his Crazy Horse Monument and took us to see it. When we met Korczk, he took us on a tour of his home and studio that faced the mountain. He rolled out a completed alabaster sculpture of his vision for the Crazy Horse Monument. The sculpture was rolled out on rails like you’d see in a mine. The outstretched hand of the sculpture pointed directly to the mountain. It was beautiful and impressive. When we met him, he’d already been blasting away at it for 17 years and only managed to create an L-shape in the side of the mountain. Today, that would be the face and the top of the arm. Even as an 11 yr. old, I realized he wouldn’t live long enough to see its completion. So I asked him who would finish it and he told me he had 10 children! Now, 60 years later, I’m thinking I won’t live long enough to see its completion! But I never forgot meeting him, his beautiful sculpture and his vision. That was a great vacation trip.
I went there in the early 70s. There was only the hole under his arm.
I was there in the early 80s,his face had been mostly formed,and the hole you talk of was there.
When I saw mt Rushmore the first time, crazy horse monument wasn't started. And no tourist heard about it. I'm sure the idea must have been there.
I was there about the same time you were - with the same experience. I also remeber the fighting stallions sculpture.
A trip I will also never forget.
I was there in 77. We asked if he was there and were informed that he doesn't greet the public any longer. The white sculptured model of it was on the deck of I beleive was the visitor center, and was posed in the same direction as the one on the mountain, so you could stand behind the model and line it up with the the one on the mountain. I remember the driveway was lined with some of his world acclaimed sculpted busts and all their noses were broken off by a hammer wielding drunken son in law. While returning to our car in the lot, a flatbed semi was being backed into the woods next to us. A large old man with long hair and a long beard was hollering at the young man driving the truck that if he couldn't listen and do a better job driving that he would do it himself, quite a spectacle. My soon to be wife mlm looked at me excitedly and said...it's him! and it was.
The detail and dedication is very impressive. It’s coming together just as Korczak and Standing Bear’s vision foretold. This is a living masterpiece. RIP Ruth K & Casimir
This is absolutely impressive! What an incredible undertaking!
I hope we can see so much improvement soon! Can't wait to see the arm in his full glory
Amazing
I went to see this statue 9 years ago. It’s just beyond words.
They've come a long way since I was there in 1978, and it looks like many years before it will be completed.
we won't see it in our life time, maybe not even in our children's life time.
IF EVER
This is a wonderful monument! Been there once and will return again someday!
I saw Crazy Horse Monument about 20 years ago, on a road trip. I was very impressed. I want to get up there again to see the progress.
When driving cross country in 1979 we visited here, great memories.
Majestic ❤
It's advanced quite a bit since I was there. Excellent.
Judging by the progress vs time... I would say about 80~90 years maybe sooner if techniques and all out funding happen. This will be the worlds largest carving in stone.
Go on a day they blast. The feel of the shockwave is intense
If they made this in China, it would’ve been down in 2 weeks.
It's truly amazing! Sadly, it probably won't be completed for another 300 years... or more.
I was there when I was 19, That was in 1976. I can’t believe it’s not finished
I hope I live long enough to see it completed .
Sad to say it will never be finished before I die, even with an expectation that I will live another 20 years.
What is the completion date? 2850?
63 now, sadly feel I won't be around to see this finished. Last visit was during the 69th Annual Black Hills Classic in 2009.
Wow only took them 40 years
I have visited that place, but didn't get close to the actual sculpture. I figure that at the rate they're progressing on it, they'll have it completed in another 200-300 years.
The freedom of native Americans for all to see .
When is this going to be done ?
Hmmmm looks like he is having a heepin good time.
Why does this take a life time to complete?
Strangely enough the natives seem to care very little for the project.
When finished There should be a Presidential dedication to all the Native Americans!
What made Crazy Horse CRAZY?
I had no idea his fingers were so short.
"My land is where my died lye buried".
The workmanship is impressive. I disagree that we should be carving images of our primate faces all over the mountains, though.
Scaling on the hand is off. Gonna need to extend pointer finger about a meter.
It will be a stunning tribute to the Sioux when finished. However, not sure why Crazy Horse was chosen as the subject of the monument. Red Horse and Sitting Bull had more impact on the West's history than Crazy Horse.
One would think that the native americans who live around there would be either working there or volunteering to help.
Only 6 guys are working working on it. Theres a lot of stuff extra help could do that would let the guys focus on the detail stuff .
What i missing here.
I wish the government would just fund this so it doesn't take another 70 years.
Don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings by offering some criticism, because I know the immense work it's taking to accomplish this, but with the design change it looks like he's petting his horse rather than pointing.
Design change?
@@MatTheSleepwalker Yeah, at the recent unveiling of the hand, they noted that they made a design change from Ziolkowski's prototype.
@@LuficariusRatspeed do you have any link for that thing... I'm kinda curious to see it!!
From the scale model I’ve seen from way back it looks like nothing has changed. The finger is pointing and he is holding on to his horse.
@@Jmc349The finger is going to be resting on the mane rather than mid-air.
No African American? I'm surprised they're not up in arms!
looks dumb
They are killing a fragile ecosystem 😪😪😪
Just like Rushmore, this "monument" is a monstrously grotesque scar on the beauty of the natural landscape, and an insult to the native inhabitants. Shame, shame, shame!
Medieval cathedrals were often constructed over multiple generations. The master masons who designed them often never lived to see their completion. Projects such as these have been rarely seen since. Our technological progress makes it easy to fit our ambitions into a single life. We lack the patience to try for anything loftier. And worse, we grow accustomed to it. Economic incentives limit our outlook to the next quarter. Looming crises are dismissed as problems for the next generation. We loose the far sighted perspective that men once had. But were we to recover that perspective, what great things we could accomplish, for ourselves and the world.
Now if we could somehow shed the shackles of the enemy of creativity: the ever-shrinking human attention span.
WOW!!! Takes me back to the '60s. 'That's really deep,man!!' Or was it Cheech & Chong?
Well spoken.....Hung on every word!
Well said
I know it won't happen in my lifetime but I hope that some day this gets finished.
No government help. Freedom on display.
They wanted the government to stay away,their treatment of the Native Americans is the reason the work is done solely by donations
Curious how many indian casino's are lining up to sponser ever since we visited in2016. Very impressive but the cost today must be mindboggling.
The hand is beautiful ❤
WOW! You can see the hand now. The detail is incredible! The thumb nail and fingernails... Such a majestic place. So glad they carved this monument honoring Crazy Horse and are still working on it. Can’t wait to see it in person
Absolutely stunning to see the hand and arm take shape!
This will be greatest monument ever, especially in this fantastic landscape !
And deservingly so, for the Natives who were here for hundreds of life times ahead of us. I love it.
I remember seeing a show titled They Said it Couldn't be Done back in the early 70's when this guy was just starting the project. Impressive how it has progressed since then.
Uh he started in 1948. It's been 75 years and it's still barely started.
I saw it in the middle 50's. Just the face was taking shape.
Wikipedia: Crazy Horse (c. 1840 - September 5, 1877) was a Lakota war leader of the Oglala band. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by white American settlers on Native American territory and to preserve the traditional way of life of the Lakota people. His participation in several famous battles of the Black Hills War on the northern Great Plains, among them the Fetterman Fight in 1866, in which he acted as a decoy, and the *Battle of the Little Bighorn* in 1876, in which he led a war party to victory, earned him great respect from both his enemies and his own people.
In September 1877, four months after surrendering to U.S. troops under General George Crook, Crazy Horse was fatally wounded by a bayonet-wielding military guard while allegedly resisting imprisonment at Camp Robinson in present-day Nebraska. He was honored by the U.S. Postal Service in 1982 with a 13¢ Great Americans series postage stamp.
I gotta give a ✋ hand to em. They can carve
I hope these workers realize how fortunate they are to be able to work on this, what an honor
I'll be dad,for the 1st time, in 2 months.Hope one day I'll be there to visit that masterpiece with my daughter.Can't wait❤.
All the best from all those who are working there at the moment.
Greetings from Italy .
Congratulations! 🎉
May you have many years of beautiful memories in this new stage of life!
Yul never c it completed, sorry. MAYBE yur Great Great Great Grandchildren,at the pace they're going.Big maybe!
Looking good. Maybe anther 50 years before it will be completed.
What a Great Tribute to Native Americans......
Crazy Horse did not want to be photographed while he lived (and wasn't, so we actually don't even know what he looked like for sure) so I kind of doubt he'd want an image in his name be the reason for the carving up of a mountain on sacred Lakota land.
I was working for Phillips66 Oil Co. in Rapid City SD in 1974 and Korczak Ziolkowski was using our fuel and lubricants in all his equipment . I spent a day with him on the mountain and the evening at his home. He drove me all over the area in his jeep and we drank whiskey in his living room. His wife Ruth brought it to us straight, in water glass tumblers!! (after a day with no meals....ugh!) He was a wonderful guy, full of enthusiasm and loving life and his gigantic project. He knew that he would not live to finish the sculpture , and he said so. He hoped that his family and foundation would complete it someday. However, nearby Rapid City is the location of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology , one of the premier hard rock mining engineering schools in the nation. I studied Civil Engineering there in the years following my visits with Korczak, and expert geophysical scientists and mining engineers at the school had determined that the Crazy Horse sculpture could never be completed because the rock the mountain is comprised of is not monolithic or uniform and could never support the type of sculpture that Ziolkowski envisioned. I can clearly see that coming true in this video made 50 years after I stood on the top of the mountain with Korczak. There's been very little change or progress in 50 years, and what has been done bears only a passing resemblance to the models and drawings Ziolkowski made originally. Too bad - His was a magnificent vision , but the raw material just was not then, and never will be there to make it real.
It’s quite the tourist trap. They have there. I first saw Crazyhorse in 1980 something and I saw it last in 2017. It’s virtually unchanged.
Very interesting perspective. Complete opposite from another commenter. How sad it’s a tourist trap. So not the original intention.
There are only six guys working on it. No wonder it has taken them decades to complete.
What a beautiful giant
My grandparents all lived in South Dakota, from the 30s to the early 2000s (they live long up there), and my paternal GPS lived in Spearfish and Rapid, and I grew up going to the area including the Crazy Horse memorial. I’m amazed, now in my 60s, how it’s come along but still has so far to go. It’s a difficult thing to carve out a mountainside of rock, but it’s looking great.
I saw this 30 years ago. Not much has changed
I said it before and I'll say it again: This project will trundle on for another century and be milked by the powers that run it and by their children and their children's children. It will never finish. Countless sums will be spent by credulous sight-seers and fill the coffers of somebody or something. I'd like to see the retrospective that is published when the whole effort is quietly shut-down and everybody leaves and the Crazy Horse is eventually covered with any foliage that can take root in the little pockets of soil that will, eventually, collect in the hollows.
Exactly. We were there in 2017, and got the distinct impression that their main goal was collecting the admission fees rather than the completion of the project.
@johnwyoder, that has been my impression every time I visited. They really don't want it finished.
Most people don't realize that the origional builder said the government will never have their hands in this creation. The government took their land but not their dignity.
I remember watching a sixty minutes program on this at least 60:years ago. This seems like a money grab by the natives. You pay to get in, then you pay again if you want get close and see the slowest work on any project anywhere. Not worth seeing.
From first time when I saw this ,it was august 2011,still think that it is a greatest monument in history as pyramides!Glory to the Humanity!!!
Wife and I saw it in July of 73, while visiting Mt Rushmore and the Black Hills. Impressive vision - Doubt if it will be done in my lifetime, as I am 80 now.
Wow. Big improvements. Keep it going guys. 👍👌✋️🙌
I have a piece of the mountain from my visit in 2021.
Wonder if I'll still be alive when it's finally finished.
I was there in the early 90's marveling at the magnificence of this undertaking...warms my Heart that it's being taken ( albeit in baby steps ) to the next level !
Saw this in 1994 when we were at Mt Rushmore and it was only his face great progress since then
I bet some Native Americans would see the undisturbed mountain more beautiful than a carving.
And I'll bet some are excited to see the monument completed...
Were you attempting to make a point or just mumbling randoms?
the progress is amazing🔆
The progress is glacial, as in slow, very very slow.
It’s taken 77 years to get this far!
When they finish the arm they should work on the horse next
The estimated time frames for building Egyptian Pyramids is 15 to 30 years!!! 4000 years later, with superior technology and 76 years of working this is the result???
I went in early 90’s. Just his head then. And you were back about 1/4-1/3 mile.
This is a great place!! Beautiful works all around. My favorite SD attraction.
Going with the pointing finger which to Crazy Horse would have meant F* you.
It would be very cool if there was an inside look at the Architectural/Civil engineering on this mountain. The careful process on how it’s done, and modeling a very nice video.
The sheer scale of this work is almost Biblical. Perhaps in 300 years and $100M it might be finished. But no one even born 2Day will see this finished.
Crazy Horse and his whole family would have never appreciated that and especially not in the Black Hills!!! This is degrading to his legacy.
Saw it 27 years ago and it hasn't changed one bit. Just milking the gullible to support their ever growing family.
Entire complex surrounded with scaffolding to detect any movement stop picking your bottom who in charge here white man?
not necessarily what Witko would have wanted...The Strong Hearts Warrior Society Hoka Hey
Hope to see it complicated in my lifetime, as progress is so slow
I think Ai and the internet are going to extinguished mankind long before this is finished.
Still pretty cool, it'll be around long after we're gone
I was in first grade in 1975 when we went, pretty much just had a hole through the mountain below where his arm would be
What a colossal waste of time. At the rate this is going it'll be 500 years before it's completed...if ever.
In 2,000 years they'll wonder how many slaves were needed to carve it with copper and flint tools.
They say the native who started it will never die until it is completed. Look for this to take 1000 years.
A million years from now archaeologists will be trying to convince everyone this is just a natural formation
Perhaps in the resurrection, Mr. Korczak will get to finish his project.
I hope I get to see this before I die!
As with mount rushmore, this is desecration at a holy site at its fullest. Another slap in the face for the indigenous.
He looks like he's clicking a mouse.
They have been working on this thing since Crazy Horse was in diapers.
think if this was used in the planet of the apes. Charlie would use the same line again.
Perhaps not finished in the lifetimes of most of us,but what a wonderful tribute to the First Americans.
I am not a believer in carving up mountains for statues.
So a long video about a finger?
Wow!Wow!Wow!😊