| Just into South Dakota, our first port of call was the Jewel
Caves. These are interesting but not as much as the Timpanogos caves were in Utah. This
is a huge cave system with over 130 miles mapped. It is the second largest
system in the world and may yet be the largest - they are still exploring.
The tour was 80 mins and started by going down in an elevator (I'm
getting the words!) This was a novel experience after climbing over
1,000 ft up to Timpanogos. But the formations seen on the "scenic" tour are not as interesting to my non-geologist
eye despite being larger. |  |
 | There are
collections of crystals, stalactites (hang on tight), stalagmites (might
trip you up), and flowstone formations. I found I had to use flash more
here which gave some interesting, if incorrectly coloured pictures. I did
buy a book by the two rock climbers who explored these caves for almost 30
years and mapped the first 60 miles. |
| Then to the Crazy Horse Monument. This was a very impressive
spectacle which we could see first from miles away. The head is 88 ft high,
and the complete monument is 22 storeys high! Even more remarkable is the
fact that it is a sculpture in the round ie 3D. You cannot go up onto the
arm (unless you are a serious contributor
to the program). They sell those options dearly. But the view from a mile
away was enough for me and was if anything more spectacular. |  |
 | The project was
started in 1939 after Chief Henry Standing Bear (a Lakota Sioux), and other
Indian chiefs decided they wanted to show the world that "the red man had
great heroes too". They commissioned a Polish sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski, who had been
working for Borglum at Mt Rushmore, to build them a suitable monument to Crazy Horse, a
war leader of the Sioux who defeated Custer. He created a sculpture and
then set about creating the larger version out of the mountain a mile behind. |
 . | He has now died
having worked (initially on his own) on the project for 40 years. The
project is being carried on by his wife, Ruth, and 7 of their 10 children.
No date is offered for its completion but over 4 million tons of rock have
been moved so far. The project is funded entirely by public donation; they
have refused offers of federal funding |
 |
| There is a very comprehensive museum of the Plains Indian on the
site. This has numerous art works by old and modern native artists. This was
of one of the older wiser chiefs who no doubt raised his own form of hell
when he was younger. I just love the age in the faces. |  |
 | This was the
original compressor which he used to start up in the morning and then climb
the 700 steps to the top so he could start drilling. Only to have to come
down because the compressor had stopped.. |
| Then we moved on another 15 miles to Mt Rushmore where the heads
of presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln have been carved
into the granite rock of South Dakota. This took 14 years to do and cost $1
million |  |
 | The site is
surrounded by the American razzamatazz and the flags of all 50 states and 6
territories. The
park rangers are there to assist. I don't think I was as impressed with it
all as I was with Crazy Horse. It might have something to with them charging
me the same to park the scooter as it would if I had brought the RV.
However I think it has as much to do with the Great America image which
seems to be pushed so much and seems to me to have been gained at the
expense of so many others.
We asked one of the rangers if any other presidents would ever be put up
there and he said not. Bit difficult to think which of the modern ones you
might feel were worthy.
But the ranger also asked if we had trouble with ethnic minorities in
England still. He thought the problem in the US was that they did not want
to integrate and become Americans (he meant like him) To me he was
representative of the problem. The Blacks, Indians, Mexicans wouldn't
integrate, but what about the Whites? |
| But we moved onward and back to our campsite in Custer, pausing
some three miles away to look back at the hillside we had just left to
ponder what our ancestors will make of all this in 10,000 years' time. Somehow they don't
seem quite so significant when put in context with mother nature. |  |
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