Five miles north of Custer, South Dakota, the stern face of Crazy Horse looks out over the Black Hills. The famous Sioux leader's portrait is carved from the solid rock of Thunderhead Mountain. Fifty years after it was begun, the 90-foot-tall portrait was officially dedicated on June 3, 1998. But it may be another 50 years before the completion of the Crazy Horse Memorial, which will be the largest mountain carving in the world. In the 1870's, Crazy Horse fought to keep gold miners out of the Black Hills, a region the Sioux held sacred. His warriors were among the Native Americans who defeated the U.S. 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. A year later, Crazy Horse was fatally stabbed by a U.S. soldier while resisting imprisonment.

In the 1930's, the Sioux decided that Crazy Horse deserved a monument. They contacted Korczak Ziolkowski, a sculptor who had worked on the presidential sculptures at Mount Rushmore. He began the Crazy Horse Memorial in 1948, and after he died in 1982, his family continued the work. When completed, the memorial will show Crazy Horse astride a galloping horse, his right arm pointing out over the Black Hills. It will be 563 feet tall--taller than the Washington Monument. Did you know... Before he died on September 6, 1877, Crazy Horse is said to have predicted, "I will return to you in stone."