The privately funded effort to carve a mountain in South Dakota into a memorial to the Sioux warrior is launching it's first ever national fundraiser. The man who started the work on the monument, Korczak Ziolkowski, died in 1982. His widow Ruth and their family have carried on the effort ever since.
The sculpture was started by the late Korczak Ziolkowski, who dreamed of honoring American Indians by carving a 563-foot-high likeness of Sioux warrior Crazy Horse into a granite mountain in the southern Black Hills.
The work began 1948. Ziolkowski died in 1982.
His widow, Ruth Ziolkowski, and their family have continued the work.
The sculpture now brings in millions of dollars every year, mainly through admission fees, and the family has held to Korczak's admonition to refuse government help to complete the project and instead rely on private enterprise.
Visitor numbers have grown to more than 1 million annually, the face of Crazy Horse is complete and the complex of buildings at the carving's base now includes a museum, education center and restaurant.
The goal of the national fund drive is to work toward the mountain carving's completion and expand cultural and educational programs at the memorial.
Crazy Horse plans to announce the fund drive Oct. 7, said Fred Tully, development director. The goal is to raise $16.5 million over the first three to five years and then another $10 million, he said.
There is much more about the sculpture and the sculptor at the Crazy Horse website. One absolutely fascinating little fact I found there is that Ziolkowski landed at Omaha Beach during the Normandy invasion and was later wounded.
