This is so cool! Crazy Horse Memorial

Due to his type of work, Mr. Lixy has been interested in this project for quite some time now. We've never taken the trip to see it but we definitely will someday!

The night blasts are his favorite! He's particularly interested in the geology aspect because the rock isn't indigenous to our area. He has to know and understand all the rock he is working with in order to do his job without incident. He'd love to hang out with the blaster's on this project!

Has anyone been to it? Walked on it? Seen a blast?

Tell me your stories!

For those who may never see it (from other countries or for whatever reason), check out the site. The pics are astonishing and the story is incredible!

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Minds are like parachutes. They only work when they are open.

~Thomas Dewar~

Wow! That is sooooooo cool! I knew that a sculpture was in the works but hadn't seen how far along it had gotten. What a treat to see something like that after hiking thru the beautiful area! Thanks Lixy!

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It's been "in the works" since about 1948 even! It's not funded by the government and so the process is ever so slow and very costly!

I work with a woman who made the trip last year. She said that the arm was just now starting to take shape (had been working on it for several years) and you could walk on it. The pics show that. They still have his headress, body and the horse to add. The horses head is painted out on the rock to show where it will be. I think it's shown in one of the pics.

When you hiked through the area Chey, didn't you catch a glimpse of the head?

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Minds are like parachutes. They only work when they are open.

~Thomas Dewar~

I'd love to go see that, too. What a fantastic sculpture.

Well.......being from South Dakota yes I have seen it, but at the time I went you could not get very close to it and work was at a stand still then too. It's really cool to see, worth the trip, also catch Mt. Rushmore and the BadLands too. Beautiful place!!!

Here's another link that'll show what the sculpture will look like when finished (a scale model), tell the story of why it is being sculpted, and give dimensions of it's full erection (<---I said erection )...

Memorial Story

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Minds are like parachutes. They only work when they are open.

~Thomas Dewar~

Thanks soda! I'm guessing you saw the monument before the arm was walkable? Did you live close enough to hear the blasts when they happened?

Mr. Lixy said they are such tiny blasts (so as not to blow anything away that is going to be part of the finished sculpture), but that they do quite a few at once. And then they have to chisel, secure and clean up the blast area before they can go on to another part. It sound tedious, to say the least!

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Minds are like parachutes. They only work when they are open.

~Thomas Dewar~

Nope...did'nt live close. Would have liked to see them work on it. The first time we went you had to stand behind a fence really far away. The second time you could walk up closer but not get to close.

So the arm wasn't walkable at that time? If so...may I ask what year that might have been? I'm just trying to get a time frame for when it might be complete. They had hoped for the Spring of 2005 as far as I can tell. But we can see that that didn't happen. Hmmmmmmm...also...do you know why, at the time you saw it, they weren't working on it? Was the project shut down for lack of funding or something? Or was it just the time of day that they let people close enough to look that they didn't do any work?

I ask because, I think now you can watch the blasts from their "safe distance" area. But I am not sure about that either. I think I read that somewhere in all the links I've visited about the memorial.

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Minds are like parachutes. They only work when they are open.

~Thomas Dewar~

Incredible! His eyes are so beautiful. Thanks for the goosebumps, Lixy (and I'm not just talking about your latest pic thread *chomps cigar like Groucho*)!

ROFLMFAO! I can't stand the pic in my head of you with those glasses, fake nose and mustache costume...yet I won't be able to get that out of my head for hours now...TYVM!

"Say the secret werd and the duck will drop down"

BTW...Crazy Horse, in his later years (maybe not necessarily his youth) wasn't as pretty as the sculpture might indicate. But yes Steph...they did him honorably and made him similar to our American stamp of Elvis...the young, cute version...not the wrinkled, old, fat one! Um...not that Crazy Horse was ever fat. OK...shutting up now!

Oh geezzzzzzz...did I just type that out loud?

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Minds are like parachutes. They only work when they are open.

~Thomas Dewar~

Yes, Lixy, you used your loud finger.

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Calm, quiet, smooth, devastating

I don't remember WHEN I saw it, but it was quite a while ago and like, sdls, I had to look from a long way off and it seemed more conceptual than visually identifiable (I probably didn't have binoculars during that visit), but the concept was FANTASTIC and INTRIGUING. Now that I've seen the pictures you've provided, I'm ready fill my car with the near $3/gallon gas and head for South Dakota!

slds...were you visiting the SAME day that I was?

Wow. Last time I saw it was 15-20 years ago and I don't really think any of it was done. That's awesome.

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“Sometimes I think we're alone. Sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the thought is staggering.” - Buckminster Fuller

"A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself." - Guildenstern, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead”

Yep, we've got to realize dude had a chisel and a drill bit and some dynamite and plugged away at it for years!

I can't believe I didn't know about this until today tho' I'm not surprised that Lixer elixer was the one who showed me this brillance.