Crazy Horse is BIG

Yesterday we saw the massive Mount Rushmore monument, and I thought that was big.

Today we saw Crazy Horse.  The guide tells us that the entire Mount Rushmore sculpture of the four presidents would fit in the forehead of Crazy Horse.  Now that's BIG.  This is truly the world's largest mountain carving, still in progress.

I was having a bit of trouble putting this carving-in-progress into a decent perspective.  Then, finally I saw the digger, waaaaaaaaay up there.   Can you see it?

Here's another way to put this project into some type of perspective:  Work began on this project on June 3, 1948, and just the face has been completed by 2013.  That's 65 years for a face.  

There is still Crazy Horse's body, arm, and his horse to finish too.  At this rate it will be decades, possibly even centuries until it is done.

There you see sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski's 1/34 scale model with the actual sculpture 3/4 mile behind it in the distance.  Although he is dead, his family is continuing the work.  His wife is still alive and we saw her today in the little cafe on the premises.  They say she is a very kind person, but has a very capable way of telling folks what needs to be done and when.

BIG must be the theme of the day.  We drove the Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park and saw these big buffalos:

We also saw large groups of pronghorn antelope.  We learned that one male will have a group of possibly a dozen females.  If one female wanders off, the male will corral her back.  I'm sure this male was uneasy, as our vehicle had separated one of his females to the other side of the road.

We saw many white tail deer and wild turkeys too, which weren't nearly as exciting since we see those often at home in central Pennsylvania.  

Tonight we will be on Kevin Costner's set from the movie "Dances With Wolves."  I'd love to see him there.  That, too, would be a BIG deal.