Tuesday June 24, 2014  See Pictures


Hi everyone,


Monday we spent the day touring the Crazy Horse Memorial.  The first blast on the mountain carving took place on June 3, 1948.  The sculptor Korczak Ziolowski died on October 20, 1982 but the work on the memorial is being continue by his wife and seven children.  A strong believer free enterprise systhm, Mr. Ziolowski felt that the Memorial to Crazy Horse should be built by the public and not the taxpayer.  Mr. Ziolowski even turned down 10 million dollars from the government as he felt they would not continue his work.  Crazy Horse never signed a treaty or touched a pen.  When asked by a white man where is his land now Crazy Horse replied "My lands are where my dead lie buried." 


From the Memorial we went to Deadwood. Deadwood is famed in the public's mind as the place where Wild Bill Hickok was murdered while playing poker in Saloon No. 10 which is still standing.  Wild Bill was holding what is now known as the "Dead Man's Hand" aces, eights and nine of diamonds.  The man that killed Wild Bill was known as Jack McCall.  Jack said that Wild Bill had killed his brother and in a miners court this was an acceptable defense and let him go.  Deadwood at times was the home of Calamity Jane who was quite the character.   Calamity Jane and Wild Bill are buried beside each other in the Mt. Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood.   There are a lot of 1800 old buildings and homes still standing. 


Today we went to Devils Tower the sight of the movie Close Encounters.  Jim and I have wanted to visit this National Monument for some time.  The only close encounter we had was with a prairie dog (they are so cute). Jim and I took the 1.3 mile tower trail around the mountain and were amazed at our countries 1st National Monument.  This Monument is very sacred to the Lokota people to this day and today prayer bundles still appear in the trees.   Devils tower was formed by an intrusion, the forcible entry of magma into or between other rock formations.  The native American legend is that "One day an Indian tribe was camped beside the river and seven small girls were playing at a distance when a bear began chasing the girls.  They ran back toward their village, but the bear was about to catch them.  The girls jumped upon a rock about three feet high and began to pray to the rock " rock, take pity on us, rock save us."  The rock heard the pleas of the young girls and began to elongate itself upwards pushing them higher and higher out of reach of the bear.  The bear clawed and jumped at the sides of the rock, broke his claws and fell to the ground.  The bear continued to jump at the rock until the girls were pushed up into the sky, where they are to this day in a group of seven little stars (the Pleiades).   To Jim and I this legend is more believable than what Hillary and Joe Biden are dishing out about being broke.   This is a magical place. 


Until tomorrow,
Jim and Debbie