Mountain Monuments Of The Black Hills
“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” - Pericles
The Black Hills is a small and isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in Western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. The name “Black Hills” is a translation of the Lakota Paha Sapa. The hills are so called because of their dark appearance from a distance
Native Americans have a long history in the Black Hills. In 1886 the U.S. Government signed the Fort Laramie treaty that promised the land to the Plains Indians “as long as the grass is green and the waters run.” As a result of George Custer’s Black Hills expedition, gold was found in the hills and the resulting gold rush caused the U.S. Government to renege on the treaty before the ink was dry.
Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Custer State Park, Spearfish Canyon, historic Deadwood and The Devils Tower National Monument are all important attractions in this area that we visited during our time in this region.
Devil’s Tower National Monument, in North Eastern Wyoming was the first national monument in the United States.
There are as many legends about the mountain as there are Native American tribes but most of them feature a giant bear raking the side of the rising mountain to get to the top which explains the striations along the side of the mountain.
The mountain is made of volcanic rock that geologists believe was formed by a column of lava that pushed up between sedimentary rock chunks and eventually hardened. The current striking appearance is a result of natural erosion. The rock stands 867 feet above the surrounding land and is almost a mile above sea level.
Devil’s Tower was featured in the movie Close Encounters Of The Third Kind which is why it might seem familiar to movie going audiences around the world.
The mountain has long been sacred to the local Native American tribes who still meet here to conduct ceremonies, rituals, and prayer. During these times the mountain is closed to tourists.
You begin catching glimpses of the tower rising up as you get closer and closer until you get to the parking lot and the start of the hiking trail. I climbed up to the base of the mountain though I did not complete the rest of the hike.
Prayers in the wind. These are sacred prayers in the form of cloths or cloth bundles tied to the trees. Tourists are warned not to touch on the pain of incurring bad luck. Interestingly there are other countries including India that have similar traditions of tying wishes and prayers in the form of cloths or strings to trees or monuments.
Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a colossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore by scluptor Gutzon Borglum with the help of his son Lincoln Borglum. The sculpture features 60 foot heads of Presidents, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. The four presidents were chosen to represent the nation’s birth, growth, development and preservation.
At the Avenue of Flags which features flags for each of the 56 states and territories flanking the walkway leading toward the mountain. Each state’s name and date of when they became part of the United States is commemorated here.
I made some wonderful new friends on this trip who have become intertwined with wandering Veena’s memories. Friendships that I hope to continue long into the future way beyond this trip.
At the viewing terrace. I made it!. It’s been a long held dream to visit some of these monuments and national parks.
While I know you’ve gotten pretty used to me saying I did not hike this or climb that; here I did hike the presidential trail and appreciate the carvings from the various angles and stops along the way.
I will tell you that I definitely did not bargain for all the stairs but never the less I made it and lived to tell about it. Seriously it’s not the easiest but it’s not the most difficult hike either.
Crazy Horse Memorial is located in the heart of the beautiful Black Hills at an elevation of 6532 feet above sea level. Treaties had originally promised this land to the native Americans but were then reneged upon when gold was found in these mountains. As if to add insult to injury the mountain was then carved with the likenesses of white presidents.
The native American’s response to this was - “ My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know that the red man has great heroes also” - Chief Henry Standing Bear.
Crazy Horse or Tasunke Witco was born as a member of the Oglala Lakota on Rapid Creek about 40 miles northeast of Thunderhead Mt. (now Crazy Horse Mountain) in c. 1840. It was a time when cultures clashed, and land became an issue of deadly contention and traditional Native ways were threatened and oppressed. Crazy Horse responded by putting the needs of his people above his own, which would forever embed him and his legacy in American History. He was killed at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, by a soldier around midnight on September 5, 1877.
Korczak, story teller in stone was invited by Chief Henry Standing Bear to bring to life his vision for the giant carving of Crazy Horse. He arrived in the Black Hills on May 3, 1947. He worked on the project until his death on October 20, 1982, at age 74.
"By carving Crazy Horse, if I can give back to the Indian some of his pride and create a means to keep alive his culture and heritage, my life will have been worthwhile."
Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski decided to create a monument that captured Crazy Horse’s likeness based on the descriptions provided to honor the principles and values for which Native Americans stood and to honor all the indigenous people of North America. With Crazy Horse riding his steed out of the granite of the sacred Black Hills with his left hand gesturing forward in response to the derisive question asked by a Cavalry man, “Where are your lands now?” Crazy Horse replied, “My lands are where my dead lie buried.”
Based on the size and scale Korczak knew that it would take years beyond his lifetime to finish the project. He created scale models and precise instructions to be followed after his passing.
After the workers were done with the blasting for the day we got to go right up to the top and walk on the hand and take pictures up close and personal with the completed sculpture.
Work in progress. It will potentially be beyond our life time when this statue will be finished.
I came, I saw, I touched and I pointed.
An interesting gate depicting the flora and fauna typical of this area.