Dynamite and Dreams: Crazy Horse Memorial

Crazy Horse Memorial, Black Hills, SD

I took this picture in May 2003.
A scale model and the actual carving in the mountain. Crazy Horse Memorial is the largest mountain carving in world and is approximately 5 times bigger than Mt. Rushmore. The carving is dont privately without any government funding. Entrance fees (approx $10 per person) provides for the much of the money needed to carve the mountain.


Korczak (1908-1982) and Ruth Ziolkowski dedicated their lives to the creation of Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Honoring the Native American, the nonprofit educational and cultural project includes the colossal Crazy Horse mountain carving now in progress, the Indian Museum of North America and the planned Indian University of North America and Medical Training Center.

Many consider the colossal Crazy Horse mountain carving in progress to be one of the wonders of the modern world. When completed, the mountain memorial will depict for all ages Crazy Horse proclaiming, “My lands are where my dead lie buried.”

Korczak, the creator of Crazy Horse Memorial was completely self-taught. He never took a lesson in art, sculpture, architecture or engineering. At the invitation of the Lakota elders, Korczak in 1947 began Crazy Horse Memorial as a tribute to the Native American. The mountain carving is the largest sculptural undertaking the world has ever known.

The sculptor’s free enterprise financial philosophy prompted him to reject two offers of potential federal funding for the Memorial.

Born in Boston of Polish decent, Korczak carved his first marble at age 23. Moving to Connecticut, he became a well known New England sculptor. In 1939 his Italian marble won first prize by popular vote at the New York World’s Fair.

Korczak’s life and extensive sculpture have been honored in many ways, but often said his greatest satisfaction came for the army of grass roots support that was expressed during his decades of progress on Crazy Horse Memorial.

Ruth Ziolkowski is President of the Board of Directors and CEO of the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation, established in 1949 as the governing entity for Crazy Horse Memorial.

Ruth assumed leadership of the project following the 1982 death of her husband, Crazy Horse sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski. Since then, she has directed all aspects of the progress at the Memorial both on and off the mountain carving. Ruth has also overseen the steady growth of the educational and cultural aspects of the humanitarian project. That includes the Crazy Horse Memorial Native American Scholarship Program primarily for students from the nine S.D. reservations.

Married in 1950, the Ziolkowski’s had five sons and five daughters, many of whom now work as a dynamic team to continue the steady growth and progress at Crazy Horse Memorial.

Korczak Ziolkowski

Without Korczak there would be no Crazy Horse Memorial. Its history always will revolve around his own extraordinary story, which is reflected in his log studio-home, workshop and sculptural galleries at Crazy Horse. His life and work are an inspiration to many, especially to young people.

Although he became most famous as a mountain carver, he was a noted studio sculptor and member of the National Sculpture Society before he came west. Crazy Horse represents only the second half of his life, and he said it was the collective experience of the difficult first half of his life which prepared him for Crazy Horse and which enabled him to prevail over the decades of financial hardship and racial prejudice he encountered trying to create an Indian memorial in the Black Hills.

Born in Boston of Polish descent, Korczak was orphaned at age one and grew up in a series of foster homes. As a boy he was badly mistreated, but he learned to work very hard. He also gained heavy construction and other skills helping his tough foster father. On his own at 16, he took odd jobs to put himself through Rindge Technical School in Cambridge, after which he became an apprentice patternmaker in the shipyards on the rough Boston waterfront.

He experimented with woodworking, making beautiful furniture. At age 18, he made a grandfather's clock hand-crafted from 55 pieces of Santa Domingo mahogany. Although he never took a lesson in art or sculpture, he studied the masters and began creating plaster and clay studies. In 1932 he used a coal chisel to carve his first portrait, a marble tribute to Judge Frederick Pickering Cabot, the famous Boston juvenile judge who had befriended and encouraged the gifted boy and introduced him to the world of fine arts.
Moving to West Hartford, Conn. Korczak launched a successful studio career doing commissioned sculpture throughout New England, Boston and New York. His Carrara marble portrait, PADEREWSKI, Study of an Immortal, won first prize by popular vote at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

A childhood dream came true when he was asked to assist Gutzon Borglum at Mt. Rushmore. The two sculptors became close friends during the summer of 1939 when Korczak was Mr. Borglum's assistant at Mt. Rushmore.

Back in Connecticut he spent two years carving his 13 1/2-foot Noah Webster Statue as a gift to West Hartford. The work drew national attention but embroiled the community and the sculptor in controversy, foreshadowing what was to come at Crazy Horse. At age 34 he volunteered for service in World War II. He landed on Omaha Beach and, later, was wounded.

At war's end he was invited to make government war memorials in Europe. but he had decided to accept the Indians' invitation and to dedicate the rest of his life to Crazy Horse Memorial.

During nearly 36 years he refused to take any salary at Crazy Horse Memorial, on which he worked until his death October 20, 1982 at age 74. He is buried in the tomb he and his sons blasted from a rock outcropping near which the permanent Indian museum will rise at the foot of the mountain carving. For the tomb door he wrote his own epitaph and cut it from three-quarter inch steel plate. It reads:

KORCZAK
Storyteller in Stone
May His Remains Be Left Unknown