Now bear with us but two seemingly unconnected things came onto my radar this week, Donny Osmond and a Lakota mountain carving…. Crazy Horse is…
Crazy Horse is rightly memorialised in South Dakota and this year they will celebrate 75 years of the in-progress carving.
And doesn’t the great chief look well on it.
As for Donny, well, the teenage heartthrob of the Seventies is returning to British shores 50 years after wowing audiences here.
When he was diverted through Glasgow Airport because Heathrow Airport wouldn’t allow him to land there.
After his teeny army brought down a balcony in their ardour to see their hero.
Osmonds standard
Crazy Horses was of course one of The Osmonds standards.
As the buffalos once did as we found out in Denver and on our old Wild West adventure in Colorado.
Although not written about the Lakota legend but rather the articulated lorries stampeding all in their path.
And I think you’d agree Crazy Horse, of Native American lore, has a far more lyrical tone to it.
It’s Crazy to think too that his carving will be big enough to include the faces of the Mount Rushmore four Presidents in his visage.
Pow wow
South Dakota is home to nine tribes of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota and doubtless other Otas.
Our friends at Great American West encourage us to take in the artists, songwriters and dancers.
Crazy Horse Memorial also offers the chance to hike to the arm of the carving during the biannual Volksmarch event.
Great American West also suggests we tie in our visit to South Dakota with a pow wow.
The Sisseton Wahpeton Wacipi is the second-oldest in the country, celebrating its 155th anniversary in July.
Like a native
South Dakota is also home to the annual Black Hills Pow wow, one of the premier American Indian cultural events in the US.
Welcoming thousands of dancers every October.
It also features parades, Lakota archery, an art show and live music.
So if all tracks this year lead to Crazy Horse Memorial then how do you get there?
Well, it’s in the Black Hills of the south west of the state.
How to get there
The entrance along US Highway 16/385 (the Crazy Horse Memorial Highway) is nind miles south of Hill City, SD.
And four miles north of Custer, SD.
Crazy Horse Memorial is 17 miles southwest of Mount Rushmore National Memorial.
Around 45 minutes from the Rapid City Regional Airport.
And that’s worth pencilling into your diary because that’s what Crazy Horse is…
