"My Lands are where

my dead lie buried."

-Crazy Horse

Carving a Mountain

Visiting Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse Memorial, the world’s largest sculpture, now in progress, is located in the Black Hills of South Dakota on US Highway 16/385 just 17 miles southwest of Mount Rushmore. The work was begun in 1948 by sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski at the request of Native Americans. Korczak died in 1982. His wife, Ruth, and their family continue the project working with the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation.

The Memorial includes the Indian Museum of North America, the Native American Cultural Center which was dedicated at the 1996 Native American Day celebration, the sculptor’s studio, as well as a new 40,000-square-foot Orientation Center and theaters opened in May 2000. Many Native American artists and crafts people create their artwork and visit with guests at the Memorial during the summer season.

Pictorial History of
Carving the Face

Click images to see larger versions


*1987* Ruth Ziolkowski in front of the upper 70 feet of Crazy Horse's "face" before detail work began on the nine-story-high face.	*April 1990* Detail work and "polishing" had revealed much of the forehead.	*February 1991* Work had begun on the eye openings and the nose was beginning to take rough form.	*June 1991* The 33' forehead had been shaped and the oval of the right eye was cut.

August 1993 Crazy Horse's nose emerged in space during this famous blast, with eyelids shaped and pupils simulated.	*July 1994* Blasting continued on the left cheek with the nose and cheekbones shaped and work beginning on the lips.	*August 1996* A 31-foot- long stone pillar was "shaved" off the face in this 54-borehole blast as work progressed to the chin.	*1998* Participants on the annual June hike up the mountain give size perspective to the completed face, dedicated June 3, 1998.