Progress quiets Crazy Horse doubts

By Barbara Soderlin
Rapid City Journal staff

CRAZY HORSE MEMORIAL — Korczak Ziolkowski has been gone for 27 years now, and on the anniversary of his death, people bring flowers to his tomb.

They walk up the gravel path, softened by damp moss and a mosaic of fallen aspen leaves, and shake hands with one of his sons, who stands to greet visitors on a cold fall day at the granite mountain encasing Crazy Horse, his stallion and the dreamer who created them.

Another year has passed since Ziolkowski died Oct. 20, 1982, at age 74.

Another year since he is said to have told his wife, “You must work on the mountain — but go slowly so you do it right.”

Another year for people to watch the progress and wonder, when will it be finished?

“Any time anybody asks me how long this is going to take, I say it’ll probably take less time than we think,” says Jeffrey Dean, executive director of the International Society of Explosives Engineers.

Read the Rapid City Journal report on Crazy Horse Memorial here.