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The
dream starts in 1948: Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski and Sioux
Chief Henry Standing Bear, who requested the memorial.
The
return
of
CRAZY HORSE
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The
dignified face of Crazy Horse, the great Sioux Indian chief, once
again gazes proudly over the homelands of his people. The giant
head of the famous warrior will eventually be part of a majestic
563ft high and 640ft long sculpture, carved out of a mountain as
a memorial to his spirit.
It will depict him on horseback, pointing a scornful finger
after being asked by a white man: "Where are your lands now?" He
is believed to have replied: "My lands are where my dead lie buried."
Awesome project
Crazy Horse was
only 34 when he was bayoneted to death by an American soldier
in 1877.
Prizewinning sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, born in Boston of Polish
immigrant parents, accepted an invitation from American Indian
leaders in 1947 to embark on this awesome project - a private,
non-profit venture which is financed primarily from admission
fees to the site and donations.
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| The
Ziolkowski family: Ruth (third from right) was mother to 10
children and she is pictured here with five of them. From
left are Casimir, Monique, Jadwiga, Anne and Adam. |
Last year marked
the 50th anniversary of the project's first phase, which has involved
the removal of some eight million tons of rock at the site 30
miles south-west of Rapid City, South Dakota - most of it using
hand-held rock drills for the blast holes.
Now the project is in a new phase to create a flat bench, approximately
150 ft wide and 250 ft high, around the monument and down to the
base. This will involve blasting about half a million tons of
rock with the help of an Atlas Copco ROC 642 crawler rig. This
rig is currently drilling pre-split and production holes on the
bench.
The best product
The rig, purchased by the Crazy Horse Memorial organization, is
drilling 1 7/8-inch pre-split holes on 12-inch centres and 2 1/2-inch
production holes on a 4x4 ft pattern - sometimes 6x6ft, depending
on rock conditions.
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| Facing
up to the task: The Atlas Copco ROC 642 crawler rig. |
Says Dave Farmer,
Atlas Copco's Area Manager: "The ROC 642 was chosen for this
task for a variety of reasons. Atlas Copco provided the people
at Crazy Horse with the rig for a free trial and they decided
to purchase it. It was clearly the best product on offer and had
the best product support. In addition, Atlas Copco's knowledge
of the industry and expertise in terms of product application
and drilling solutions were strong and positive factors for their
choice. The people at Crazy Horse were impressed with the rig's
accuracy, flexibility and reach. Being able to re-pin the feed
and the boom swing cylinder for some of the bench operations is
a major plus."
 Hero
with a mission
The
Indian hero Crazy Horse was a fierce and clever warrior
who resisted the white man's invasion of the Great Plains.
He claimed the right of his Lakota tribe to roam at will
over their traditional hunting grounds - and refused to
honour the reservation provisions of the 1868 Treaty of
Fort Laramie. The treaty promised that the Black Hills of
Dakota would forever be sacred Indian land.
The treaty was broken when gold was discovered in the area
and prospectors, disregarding Indian rights, swarmed into
the Black Hills.
Many bloody clashes followed as Crazy Horse and his people
attempted to defend their lands. They eventually joined
the main force of the Sioux nation under Chief Sitting Bull
on the banks of the Little Bighorn River, where a battalion
of General Custer's soldiers was wiped out in the most famous
battle of the Indian wars.
Finally, his tribe weakened by cold and hunger, Crazy Horse
agreed to talks at Camp Robinson, Nebraska. While under
army protection he was fatally stabbed in the back by a
white soldier.
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 Sculptor
with a vision
Self-taught
sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski never took a formal lesson in
art, sculpture, architecture or engineering. And when he
started work on Crazy Horse Memorial, he was nearly 40 and
had only USD 174 to his name.
A strong believer in free enterprise, he twice turned down
USD 10 million in potential federal funding, saying that
Crazy Horse should be a non-profit project built by the
interested public and not the taxpayer.
Over the decades, Korczak battled against financial hardship
- he never took a salary - injuries and advancing age. As
he tackled the mountain with a hand-held jackhammer, he
suffered from heart problems and was often injured in falls,
resulting in several operations on his spine.
He knew from the beginning that Crazy Horse would take longer
than any single lifetime - so he and his wife Ruth prepared
three books of detailed plans for use with his scale models
so that the project would continue.
Since the sculptor's death in 1982, aged 74, Ruth and seven
of their children continue working to realise his dream.
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