The World’s Largest Sculpture Will Honor A Native American War Chief

People, places and captured moments selected from The Intentional Travelers photo collection.

A photo taken at the parks gift shop showing a model of the monument with the mountain in the distance..

On Thunderhead Mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota there is a project that was started in 1947 to create the world’s largest rock sculpture.

The Crazy Horse Memorial depicts the Oglala Lakota warrior Crazy Horse riding a horse and pointing off into the distance at what was once land sacred to the Lakota people. The project was started by sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski at the request of Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear, who wanted to show that Indigenous people have great heroes as well .

Once completed, it is intended to surpass the dimensions of nearby Mount Rushmore. Although the face of Crazy Horse was completed and dedicated in 1998 the Crazy Horse Memorial is a monumental ongoing mountain carving that has been under continuous construction since 1948. Designed to honor the legendary Oglala Lakota warrior Crazy Horse, it will be the world’s largest sculpture upon completion.

Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear wrote to the Polish-American sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski in 1939. stating “My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know that the red man has great heroes, too”. The tribes represented by Standing Bear offered 900 acres on Thunderhead Mountain in the Black Hills for the monument. The Sculptor: Ziolkowski had previously assisted with the carving of Mount Rushmore and accepted the commission, moving to the site in 1947 to begin building roads and prepare the rock face of the mountain. Work to finish Crazy Horse’s left hand and the horse’s mane will likely be finished by 2035. There is currently no estimate for the projects total completion.