The biggest sculpture in the world is taking shape in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It honors Crazy Horse, a fearless Lakota Indian chief who fought for Native Americans in the mid-1800s. The sculpture shows the chief atop his horse, pointing to the Lakotas’ sacred mountains. At 563 feet (172 meters), the sculpture is taller than the Washington Monument. The outstretched arm has standing room for 4,000 people.
A man named Korczak Ziolkowski (KOR-chok jewel-CUFF-ski) started carving the mountain with dynamite and bulldozers almost 50 years ago. He had been invited to do so by Lakota chief Henry Standing Bear, who said: “My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know the red man had great heroes, too.”
Ziolkowski arrived in South Dakota in 1947. He worked on the statue for 34 years before dying in 1982. Today many of his descendants carry on his work. In 1998 they will complete Crazy Horse’s face. They plan to finish the entire memorial someday, no matter how long it takes. That’s determination!
Some people thought Ziolkowski was foolish to carve the memorial. “They’re right,” he once said. “You have to be to get anything big done in this world.”
Text by Jerry Dunn
Photograph by Robb DeWall
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To learn more about the Crazy Horse Memorial, read “This Memorial Rocks” in the June issue of WORLD magazine. Click here to become a Junior Member of the National Geographic Society and receive WORLD each month, or call 800 437 5521.
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