Today we took off on highway 16 towards our first stop; Mt Rushmore. The history of Rushmore is basically a memorial was decided to commemorate 4 past presidents; George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. The project was commissioned to Gutzon Borglum, a Dutch/American, it was started in 1927 and was finished in 1941. Initially busts were to have been done down to the waists, but funds ran out due to the 2nd world war so only the heads were done. its one of those tourist spots that you get o, you look at it, you take some pictures and then you say OK I saw it, on to the next tourist trap!
We kept on down the highway and stopped at Crazy Horse, this monument is somewhat different; the Mt Rushmore was USA government driven, Crazy Horse is driven by the native Indians of America. They started this project by hiring a well known sculptor by the name of Korczak Ziolkowski. The project was designed to honor the Indian leader Crazy Horse, it was started in 1948. The guy literally started by using a hammer and chisel to put dynamite into small holes to blast rock out. Over the years technology has changed and they are using GPS, lasers and intricate dynamite to continue the monument. Its considerably larger than Mt Rushmore, maybe the Indian people set out to do it this way since the USA government basically took everything away from them over the years. The government has offered millions of dollars in funding but the Indians have refused; they are continuing the project on private funding.
We headed out to explore some of the smaller towns on route, also visiting an underwater waterfall!
We finished the day with a nice discounted dinner at Ruby Tuesdays, a US chain.
it was kinda cool doing the speed limit at 80! don't worry I didn't have the 5th wheel behind me :)
an Americon icon
the Crazy horse is much larger than Rushmore, her are some stats; the head is 87 feet, a feather will add another 44'. The arm and hand will extend out 263 feet out from his chin. The horses head will be 219 feet high.
yup the picture proves I didn't copy any pics off the internet :)
a closer view
a cool horse made up of scrap metal, including bottle caps
an old mine with a waterfall
never seen this before.
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