Of Men and Mountains

What can one do with mountains?  Well, you can climb them, photograph them, explore them, plunder them for gold and minerals, or name them.  You might scratch your name into a  rock on a mountain to say you've been here, and 'Elroy Heart Alma 4EVA' kinda thing.  Then there are the men who have way grander ideas. Two at least decided to shape the mountain into sculptures, and that's what we went to see today.  And yesterday we saw a town that illegally sprung up in the mountains so that men could scrabble around for gold, and one mountain that thrust its way out into the light and has awed everyone who sees it ever since.

Mt Rushmore, South Dakota

Crazy Horse Memorial, South Dakota

Mt Rushmore (completed between 1934 and 1939) and Crazy Horse Memorial (1948 -) are classic examples of men who had way too much time and dynamite on their hands.  Rushmore is finished; Crazy Horse may never be.  Rushmore is famous white presidents; Crazy Horse is an American Indian who tried to save his people's way of life from settlers and soldiers ruled by those presidents. Both are amazing works of art blasted into mountains.  Rushmore is picture-perfect - no photo is a bad photo.  It's amazing the details you can see, and the museum attached to the site is full of interesting information about how the images were planned and made.  Crazy Horse is a herculean effort by one family to complete the largest sculpture ever made.  It's not federally funded so work progresses slowly, but you can gradually see the details emerging.  They are starting to work on the horse now. By the time your grandchildren are old enough to drive, they might see that finished.  Both these monuments are within easy drive of the other, in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota.  The whole area is stunning, full of great rock formations and thickly wooded slopes.

Devils Tower, Wyoming

The Devil's Tower National Monument, in Wyoming is truly awesome. You can't help but be silenced by the thing, as you see it rising out of the plains.  It's no wonder that it was held sacred by local American Indian tribes.  The tower is called many different names relating to bears by the local tribes, but the interpreter accompanying a white expeditionary force in 1875 mis-heard this, and thought they called the tower 'Bad God's Tower', hence the English name.  However, I certainly can see why one WOULD think it was the devil's work - it's unnatural how this mound of rock is perfectly formed, just sitting there on the plain. How did it get there?  Why?  The scientific explanations in the Ranger's Office go some way to trying to explain, but they are also not sure.  I just prefer to think it's something special, and can easily see why Richard Dreyfuss made a sculpture out of the thing in mashed potato, and Spielberg had aliens landing on it in 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'!

Main St, Deadwood

The final allusion to men and mountains is the famously bad town of Deadwood, in South Dakota. I loved the HBO series, and being here was something special.  This town was born bad; settlers, seeking gold in the Black Hills mountains held sacred by the Dakota Indian tribes, put up saloon and hotel tents and established a town here without permission.  Eventually Deadwood was granted town status, but it had a pretty colourful reputation, which has continued to this day.  Wild Bill Hickok was shot here while gambling, and Calamity Jane made her presence felt.  Today it seems to be all booze and gambling - every second building was a casino and bar, and various seedy people were reeling in and out of the different places when we arrived there at night.  Very touristy, but with its past it probably suits this image now - I think the characters who inhabited this place would shudder to think of it being sanitised and sanctified.

Anyway, those were the four reasons for coming to the South Dakota Black Hills region, and tomorrow we leave for our trek to Iowa and Wisconsin to see old cars. Spearfish has been a great little town to stay in for 3 days - it's nice to have somewhere the same to come back to for more than a day!
To see more pictures from our trip in this area, click here.