Facts About Crazy Horse Memorial

• The mountain monument of the Crazy Horse Memorial is constructed in the form of Crazy Horse riding a horse and pointing out far in the distance.
• The Thunderhead Mountain from which the memorial is carved out is situated on a land which is considered sacred by some Native Americans residing about 17 miles away from Mount Rushmore, between Custer and Hill City.
• The final dimensions of the monument when complete are designed to be 641 feet wide and 563 feet high while the Crazy Horse head is intended to be 87 feet and the heads of each of the four US Presidents at Mount Rushmore are 60 feet high.
• The memorial was commissioned by Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear while the mountain carving was begun by the talented Boston-born sculptor, Korczak Zió³kowski, in 1948.
• Korczak Zió³kowski had previously worked on the Mount Rushmore Monument alongside Gutzon Borglum in 1924.
• The entire complex of the monument has been owned by Zió³kowski’s wife and ten children who still are working on the memorial, with no fixed date of completion.
• The memorial is a private, non-profit undertaking that does not accept any government, state or federal funding. Admission fees and contributions make the most of the funding of the memorial.
• The memorial has been categorized into three parts, namely, the mountain carving of the Crazy Horse Memorial, the Indian Museum of North America and the Native American Cultural Center.
• Apart from the above attractions, the memorial complex houses a visitor center, twin theaters to show orientation DVD, education and conference center, sculptor’s log-studio home, indoor and outdoor galleries, restaurant, snack bars, bronze showroom, gift shops and a veranda for having a glimpse of the sculpture-in-progress.