The Crazy Horse Memorial is located in Crazy Horse, South Dakota in the heart of the Black Hills, the sacred lands that the Lakota call PaSapa. The Crazy Horse Memorial began on June 3, 1948, when Lakota Chief Standing Bear, who asked world renowned sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski to carve a figure of Crazy Horse in Thunderhead Mountain, started a charge of dynamite that led to the beginning of the world’s largest rock sculpture which is still being carved.

Ziolkowski said, “The treatment of the American Indian is the blackest mark on the escutcheon of our nation’s history. By carving Crazy Horse, if I can give back to the Indian some of his pride and create the means to keep alive his culture and heritage, my life will have been worthwhile.”

The Crazy Horse carving is being done in three dimensions. It is 563 feet high, taller than any other monument built in history. Crazy Horse’s face was finished on June 3, 1998. Ziolkowski worked virtually alone for the first five years working out the different measurements and dimensions of the sculpture.

Today his wife Ruth Ziolkowski and their children carry on with the work started by Korczak Ziolkowski. The website for the memorial is www.crazyhorsememorial.org