WorldWide Drilling Resource

WorldWide Drilling Resource ® The sun was set- ting; it was time to move on down the road to Spearfish. Remember, I said getting from Point A was half the fun. The other half took place over the following two days at Point B, the 28 th Annual Best in the West Drill and Blast Conference. The event kicked off with an optional trip to the Crazy Horse Memorial. If you are unfamiliar with this work in progress, I urge you to take the time to explore its history. The pro- ject’s motto is “Never forget your dreams.” Since 1949, it has been a labor of love by the Ziolkowski family. Unlike Mount Rushmore, Crazy Ho r s e i s b e i n g f unded en t i r e l y by the interested public and not the U.S. government. This Native American monument tells another story of a historic struggle for freedom that should never be taken for granted. I overheard one of the sculptors who has devoted her life to this carving say she would not see Crazy Horse complete in her lifetime. I thought about the measure of devotion required to work so hard toward a goal you know you will never see finished, and to keep on working at it anyway. I was only in South Dakota a few days, but I will never forget the experience. Along with the small pieces of rock I stuck in my pocket, I also returned to Florida with a deeper appreciation of the place I truly believe is God’s Country. The Crazy Horse Memorial is the largest sculptural undertaking the world has ever known. In 1939, as presidents’ faces emerged from granite, the Lakota (Sioux) of South Dakota started planning a memorial of their own 17 miles southwest of Mount Rushmore. Unlike the carvings at Mount Rushmore, sculpted into one side of a peak, Crazy Horse is being sculpted in the round with the great chief sitting on a horse with his arm outstretched. Once complete, the sculpture will be 563 feet high and 641 feet long. The faces of Mount Rushmore are six stories high; Crazy Horse’s face alone is nine stories high. WWDR photos by Kathy Heinrich. Wild Bill Hickok 53 AUGUST 2015