Crazy Horse Memorial fundraising drive to begin

CRAZY HORSE, S.D. -- Crazy Horse Memorial will start its first national fund drive this fall.

The sculpture was started by the late Korczak Ziolkowski, who dreamed of honoring American Indians by carving a 563-foot-high likeness of Sioux warrior Crazy Horse into a granite mountain in the southern Black Hills.

The work began in 1948. Ziolkowski died in 1982.

His widow, Ruth Ziolkowski, and their family have continued the work.

The sculpture now brings in millions of dollars every year, mainly through admission fees, and the family has held to Korczak's admonition to refuse government help to complete the project and instead rely on private enterprise.

Visitor numbers have grown to more than 1 million annually. The face of Crazy Horse is complete and the complex of buildings at the carving's base now includes a museum, education center and restaurant.

The goal of the national fund drive is to work toward the mountain carving's completion and expand cultural and educational programs at the memorial.

Crazy Horse plans to announce the fund drive Oct. 7, said Fred Tully, development director. The goal is to raise $16.5 million over the first three to five years and then another $10 million, he said.

The first project is a $1.4 million dormitory that will house 40 American Indian students who will work at the memorial.

The second phase will fund a hall that will recognize Indian heroes from the past and present, including an astronaut, soldiers, athletes and people from science and medicine.

For more information, visit www.crazyhorsememorial.org.