Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Crazy Horse Memorial, Custer, South Dakota


We finally went to Crazy Horse today after some postponing due to bad weather on previous days off. Well, we have a mixed review, and from what we gather from other visitors, we may be in the minority. We like the premise of the Crazy Horse Memorial ~ a monument that represents the history, culture, and spirit of Native Americans in North America. We also enjoyed the movie in the Visitor’s Center and appreciate the final goals and outcomes of the memorial.  
We were disappointed that it felt very “touristy” (for lack of a better word) – for example, the American Indian Cultural Center had mostly Native Americans selling their wares.  That’s fine, of course, but it would have been nice to see and watch the artists at work – making jewelry, drawings, etc… it felt more like a flea market, rather than a Cultural Center.  The entire site seemed a bit unpolished; for example, there were descriptions of artwork at the Orientation Center that were held up with peeling scotch tape. We recognize that Crazy Horse is funded completely on visitor support and donations, but for such a large facility, there lacked a level of attention to detail one would expect.
The price for admission is either $10 per person or $27 a carload. (As with other area attractions, we were able to get in free with our VIP pass given to us from the Mt. Rushmore Bookstore Association.)  For an additional $4 per person, you can take a bus to the base of Crazy Horse, which was another disappointment since we thought we could walk to the base of the mountain.


Would we go back? Actually, the answer is yes. We’re going back on Saturday to do the 10K Crazy Horse Volksmarch. (We’ll write about that this weekend.) We’d also probably come back in ten or twenty years to see the progress. 


Easy and affordable - no matter where you are! 

1 comment:

Jerry and Suzy said...

We were there a few years back, thoroughly enjoyed the place. We all look at things through different eyes, I guess. But then, maybe things have changed since we were there. Glad you had mostly good impressions.

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