There are no tourist facilities at the site of the Memorial. Like every other place in the Black Hills, however, Rushmore can be reached in a few minutes’ drive from any one of a number of near-by points where a tourist might be stopping. Borglum’s studio, situated on a prominence a few hundred yards from the carvings, gives the best view of the scene and is open to the public.
Crazy Horse
It is not entirely accurate to refer to the Mount Rushmore Memorial as the other man-made wonder in the Hills. At the moment it is the only such marvel outside of Sylvan Lake; but in twenty-five or thirty years it will have to share that honor with the Crazy Horse Memorial, a statue carved on top of Thunderhead Mountain, between Harney Peak and the town of Custer. This gigantic carving, which will be an entire figure and not a mere bas-relief, will be an equestrian statue of the great Sioux chief, Crazy Horse, who led his nation during the desperate years between 1866 and 1877. The chief will be mounted on a prancing steed, his hair blowing, as if in the wind, behind him.
The Indians themselves can take the credit for this fabulous idea. Chief Henry Standing Bear, a resident of the Pine Ridge reservation, is said to have had his inspiration after a visit to Mount Rushmore. Why not, he wondered, erect some monument to an outstanding red man, so that when the last of his people have been assimilated into the white man’s society, visitors to what was once the heart of the Indian country can reflect for a moment upon the greatness of that lost race?
Standing Bear wrote his idea to Korczak Ziolkowski, an energetic and imaginative sculptor, and suggested that Chief Crazy Horse would make a fitting symbol of the Indians’ struggle for existence. This was in 1940.
The sculptor took to the idea, but because of the events of World War II he was unable to commence work on the project until 1947. Since then he has been setting off two blasts of dynamite a day, carving away the rock at the top of Thunderhead. But even yet the first faint outlines of the eventual statue are only barely discernible. Ziolkowski estimates that the entire task will consume a quarter of a century, if not more, and will cost not less than five million dollars. If this figure sounds high compared with the less than a million spent on Rushmore, perhaps the measurements will provide an explanation: the horse upon which the chief will be seated will be four hundred feet from nose to tail, and the entire work, from pedestal to top, will be more than five hundred feet in height.
Mount Coolidge
In this same general region lies another prominent Black Hills landmark which every tourist should take time to visit—Mount Coolidge. With a height of 6,400 feet, this peak is by no means an outstanding mountain, being ranked by a good half dozen higher within the Hills. But from its summit, which can be reached by an auto road leading off U.S. 85A a few miles to the north of Wind Cave Park, an amazing vista can be seen. To the east, on a clear day, the White River Badlands loom as a great valley sixty miles away. To the south one can see across the high rolling hills all the way into Nebraska, and to the west landmarks in Wyoming are clearly visible. On the summit a stone lookout tower has been built for the convenience of visitors.
Jewel Cave and Ice Cave
Since the Black Hills are underbedded so widely by limestone, it is not surprising to find in them not one but several memorable caverns. There are, as a matter of fact, a dozen or more well-known large caves; but outside of Wind Cave, only Jewel Cave has been opened and fully prepared for public visit. The expense of exploring, lighting, and carving trails in the others has kept them off the market, so to speak, for in a region so packed with scenic delights two great caverns are about as much as the traffic will bear.