While in South Dakota, the one place we all knew we would visit was Mount Rushmore. We arrived in Custer, SD, on Saturday evening. We went to church at the Black Hills Church of Christ Sunday morning and then went first to see the Crazy Horse Memorial.

This is a large carving in rock similar to Mt. Rushmore except that it is:

1. Of Crazy Horse
2. To be larger than Rushmore
3. Not finished
4. Not nearly finished

The memorial was started years ago by a man now deceased at the invitation of some elder indians of the Lakota tribe. The project has been a continued endeavor of his wife and children, 7 of his 10 children. The project accepts no public/government funds, only private, so the pace of completion is staggeringly slow, but this seems to be no big deal to the family. Being true to the initial vision and purpose are more important, and the family seems to recognize that they will not finish this in their lifetime. The assumption is that future descendants will carry on the carving to completion.

The sight provided more than I anticipated it would. There was a large visitor center, a sculpting studio, a nice museum of indian artifacts, and a place where local indians sold their art work. The plan is to have a school of indian studies among other things.

We left and drove through the Black Hills and Keystone, SD, to Mount Rushmore. We timed our arrival so that we could stay until a ceremony that occurs nightly at 9:00. The ceremony includes a ranger program, a patriotic video, a call to all veterans to the stage, a singing of the national anthem by all in attendance, a lowering of the flag, and the folding of the flag by all of the veterans gathered on stage. During the video portion, gradually, the faces of Rushmore are illuminated. This is referred to generally as the "lighting ceremony."

Prior to this ceremony, we watched a video about the construction/carving, walked through some exhibits, visited the memorial store, bought some ice cream to share, and walked a trail that runs below and closer to the memorial and has some great views. A popular stop in the exhibit area is a mechanism where the patron pushes down on a explosion thing and simulated on the screen of the monitor is an explosion of dynamite blowing off some of the rock. Very popular.

Tomorrow, Wall Drug and Badlands National Park.