Crazy Horse

Back in July 2009 I visited Mount Rushmore  in South Dakota along with Historic Environment Scotland to sign an agreement which saw that body undertake laser scanning of the famous mountain.   This was the start of the "Scottish Ten" project , more about which you can find here.  

It wouldn't have been right to go to Mt Rushmore without also visiting the Crazy Horse memorial nearby which we did on the 4th of July and saw their annual Independence Day blast.  I include a couple  of the pictures from that as my extra photo, as well as a couple from the Mt Rushmore visit , and more of the visit can be found on my Flickr site. .

I was inspired by Crazy Horse - not just the story of Borglum starting single handedly ,on what was more than his lifetime's work (his family are a key part of the continuing project)  but also the vision of a Native American university on the site and the  cultural celebration and outreach that was always planned and which  has come  to fruition. 

I have been an occasional, and small, donor to the project ever since and I was therefore  delighted to get this pin in the mail yesterday, which celebrates 75 years of mountain carving, as it is called.   I thought it needed a bit of rock to set it off, this time from one of the ruins just outside the door of my study, which marks a settlement that features on the Pont Map of this part of Scotland , dating from the late sixteenth century.   

So history touches history.