WorldWide Drilling Resource

Making History in South Dakota Adapted from Information by TEI Rock Drills and the Crazy Horse Memorial One of the most treasured monu- ments in the United States is located in the heart of the Black Hi l ls of South Dakota. No, we’re not talking about the majestic Mount Rushmore, but rather the Crazy Horse Memorial located just a few miles down the road. The Crazy Horse Memorial stands tall and proud, chiseled out of the granite rock by pow- erful drills and precise blasting methods. The or iginal sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski , was commissioned by Henry Standing Bear of the Oglala Sioux tr ibe to help create the monument dedicate d to the brave Sioux warrior Crazy Horse. Know n as the world’s largest mountain carvin g, it will be a 563-foot-high by 641-foot-long de piction of this Native American hero whe n it’s finished. The project has become a famil y affair with Korczak, his wife, children, and grandchildren working on the monument. Although Korczak and his wife Ruth pa ssed away before they could see their l abor of love to completion, four of their children and three grandchildren continue to wor k on the family legacy today. In addition to hostin g special events, more than a million visi tors come to the monument’s welcome center a nd museum each year. Carving the monumental masterpiece hasn’t been easy, Ziolkowski had to trus t his artistic eye, self-taught geological knowledg e, and simple tools. When he first started the project, he single-jacked or hand drilled e ach of the holes for blasting, an extre mely tedious procedure. The first blast was on Ju ne 3, 1948, and a lot has changed since t hen. Technology has introduced high-tech laser s to help with measurements and heavy- duty rock drills to create blastholes more efficie ntly. More recently, a dust collection de vice was designed specifically for this complex project. The Crazy Horse Mountain Crew has been using the durable, powerful precision drills from TEI Rock Drills for quite some time. After all, this is no ordi- nary drill and blast operation. According to the Crazy Horse Memorial website, “… This is the opposite of most blasting operations, where the main concern is the final size and location of the materi- al being blasted away … Rock to be removed is drilled on all sides with a series of parallel drill holes [presplit- ting.] Explosives are deto- 41 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® SEPTEMBER 2019 Congratulations to: Toni Unger Gouldsboro, PA Winner for August! Time for a Little Fun! August Puzzle Solution: Bill Johnson Equipment Company Sonic Drill Corporation Win a prize! Send your completed puzzle to: WWDR PO Box 660 Bonifay, FL 32425 or fax to: 850-547-0329 Can you identify which ads in this issue these two photos came from? The Dust Pup attached to an MME drill for dust collection. TEI Rock Drills is proud to be part of this project’s history. Making History cont’d on page 46. EXB