Crazy Horse Memorial® | Visit Rapid City

So the mission of Crazy Horse Memorial is to protect and preserve the living heritage and culture of the North American tribes. We do that through the mountain, museum, and university and all the work that is share here at the memorial. So it's quite an experience. So the history of Crazy Horse Memorial started with an invitation by one of the leaders of the Lakota people, Chief Henry Standing Bear. During the time that Mount Rushmore was being carved, Chief Henry Standing Bear want the world to know that Native peoples had heroes and the beautiful culture that exists and really the world needs to learn about. So, Chief Henry Standing Bear reached out to Korczak Ziolkowski and invited him to come to the Black Hills and carve a memorial dedicated to the North American tribes. Eventually, Crazy Horse, who was a revered leader amongst the Lakota people, was selected because of the values, the virtues, the courage, he exemplifies what it is to be Lakota. As Korczak and Chief Henry Standing Bear had the discussions, they wanted to right some of the wrongs that were done towards the Native American people and the cultures here in America after the settlers had arrived. So the monument is dedicated to really educating and helping people to work together between cultures, to learn more and to understand the great beautiful culture that exists. When you come to Crazy Horse Memorial, and the campus itself is about 1,000 acres in terms of the museum, the University, the portions of beautiful land, the mountain, the Visitor Center, so on and so forth, but on the mountain itself the face alone is about 87ft in height. On the side of Crazy Horse's head, for context, you could fit Mount Rushmore. Just on the side of Crazy Horse's head. Right now, the width, in terms of how wide it is, it's over 600 feet wide, over 500 feet tall, and so the mountain itself is the largest mountain carving in progress in the world. When visitors get here they can also go through the museum. The Indian Museum of North America. We have thousands of artifacts that were organically given from donors, from tribes, from folks that really wanted to be part of the mission, part of the dream here at Crazy Horse. The Ziolkowski family started the museum to really provide and support to the humanitarian project that is here. To allow folks to learn about over 600 tribes that exist here across North America. Through our museum we are able to educate, we're able to open the minds and the hearts of our visitors to really truly understand the brevity that exists and the many different languages and cultures that are here. Learning about these efforts that take place here really inspires you to be part of the dream. Obviously the mountain carving itself, which Korczak Ziolkowski said eventually is going to be the smallest part of the mission, but it attracts and brings people here. If you ever get a chance to go up on the mountain it's a beautiful experience. You can witness not only the beauty of the mountain carving, but also the Black Hills and the surrounding area. So it's quite an experience. So each and every year we partner with the Volkssports Association, a national organization, and one of their biggest events is the Volksmarch here at Crazy Horse Memorial. This is an event that historically taken place usually the first weekend in June and again in the fall. These two dates provide folks an opportunity to walk up, take the hike up all the way to the top of the mountain in front of the face of Crazy Horse. Just that experience, we get thousands of visitors each and every weekend that those take place. It's such a rich history and it allows for folks to just take part and witness the memorial up close and personal with their families and friends. To be able to hike that and learn from the mountain carvers and learn from our staff that work here at the foundation, it's just a one of a kind experience and highly recommended to folks to experience that. Couple of things that we share, in the next three to five years, obviously right now we are finishing the hand, the forearm of Crazy Horse, the horses mane, Crazy Horse's hair. You know in the next three to five years we're really going to see that come to light, and I think that's really going to help people to understand the perspective. The other part that we share as well is that we are donor and admissions funded. Because of that, we're just going to continue to carve the mountain, although the latest technologies that we have the more support we receive, will continue to speed up that process. We're very proud of the work that's being done here and we highly recommend all the experiences and opportunities that are provided here.