Some manmade wonders must be seen to be appreciated. Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial are two such places.
After enjoying a morning at a real art show in Custer State Park, it was time for HHH and me to visit both of them in one day. Only about seventeen miles apart, they are so different, and yet both were created through vision, determination, and a whole lot of dynamite.
Mount Rushmore is something every American should stand before at least once. Every detail is magnificent. Four past presidents gaze outward from the mountain—visionaries looking into a future and a country they could not possibly have imagined.
The United States of America.
Forever free. Forever beautiful. Forever ours to love and care for.
There, HHH and I sat with many other retirees enjoying ice cream made from Thomas Jefferson’s historic recipe. Truly, it was some of the best ice cream I’ve eaten in my entire life—and we have Steve’s Ice Cream here in my hometown, so that’s saying something.
Watching people was almost as much fun as listening to voices from around the world. We sat, ate our ice cream, looked up at that mountain, and took it all in. All in all, a visit we won’t forget.
Crazy Horse was spectacular in an entirely different way.
The completed face of Crazy Horse alone is 87 feet, 6 inches high. Standing at the viewing area, the scale was almost impossible to comprehend. Construction workers on the mountain were so tiny that I couldn’t really see them until I put a quarter into one of the telescopes.
Best quarter I’ve spent in a long time.
Through that telescope, the mountain changed. Suddenly, people were up there working on something so enormous that, from where we stood, they practically disappeared into the stone.
Both of these magnificent sculptures rise from the mountains themselves, framed by that enormous South Dakota sky. One is finished. One is still becoming. Both began with someone looking at a mountain and seeing something that wasn’t there yet.
South Dakota. A place of wonder and beauty.
And speaking of something that was once only a dream, Widow: A Journey Toward Life is now only weeks away from release. As the excitement builds toward November 11, you can preorder your Kindle edition now.
More South Dakota tomorrow.