Such Majesty 3: Monuments

After leaving Yellowstone we headed east through Wyoming on a winding mountain road through the Bighorn National Forest. But eventually the land evened out a bit, and for miles we saw nothing but rolling hills. We stopped along the way, spending the night in Buffalo, a fairly ordinary Wyoming town. The next morning we continued through the plains until we reached our first stop of our day of monuments, the Devil's Tower. This natural monument is an igneous protrusion, so basically a spire of magma from which the surrounding land eroded, leaving this unworldly mountain. Perhaps you've seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Well this where them aliens landed.

Such Majesty

There was one spot near where I took this picture where you could clearly hear some climbers talking to each other halfway up the rock. I guess the shape lends itself to good acoustics. After a nice hike around the tower, we got back on the road and drove through the rest of Wyoming in order to reach our next destination.

The Black Hills of South Dakota, a sacred land we forced the Indians onto, and then off of soon after. There we stopped at the Crazy Horse memorial, which I'll come back to at the end, and then Mt. Rushmore where we spent the rest of the evening.

Such Majesty.. er.. Presidency

We arrived at the monument around five, and since my father wanted to see the supposed "light show" at nine, we had to milled about the park for four hours. Now, don't get me wrong, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt are just about the only American politicians I admire (up yours, Van Buren). But the park is not that large, so four hours was a little intense. And of course the "light show" turned out to be a crappy spotlight that barely lit the faces. Worst of all it was preceded by a ten minute speech by some random park ranger, and a twenty minute film entitled, Freedom: America's Living Legacy. Obviously the one thing I hate most about America is freedom. But in all seriousness, the speech wasn't terrible albeit a little formulaic, founding fathers and our personal legacy kind of stuff, and the video was more redundant that anything else. Seeing as how we had four hours to visit the museum first, I had already read and seen most of the content of the film (mostly how they carved the faces, and what each president had contributed to our country's legacy). I did see a mountain goat, so... that was cool. But all in all I would have much rather stayed at our previous destination longer.

The Crazy Horse Memorial. Or as my father continually referred to it:"That Indian one." Started more than half a century ago, the Lakota Indians hired Korczak Ziolkowski (a world's fair prize winning sculptor who had worked on Rushmore) to carve a humongous likeness of the legendary War Chief Crazy Horse. The monument continues to be blasted and carved today, despite Ziolkowski's death. When will this be finished? Well odds are not for a long time, as they are funded completely by the "interested public" who donate and visit the site each day. Apparantly it is against the purposes of the project for the memorial to accept government funding (it has declined a ten million dollar grant twice) in order to preserve the integrity. Part of it is that it might seem hypocritical to be supported by the government that quite literally stabbed Crazy Horse in the back, while he carried a flag of truce. I was quite fond of the place, but it's a shame that they cannot justify grant money as a sign of reparation on the part of the American Government for the whole genocide thing. Nonetheless, I tremendously respect their values. Also those constructing it (mainly Ziolkowski's surviving family) don't see the finished monument as the goal of the work. It is the process, people coming together to support a cause that means more than just a face in stone.

Such, gradually emerging, Majesty

As a matter of perspective observe the two photos I have given you of the monuments. The faces of Mt. Rushmore would fit into an area no bigger then the side of Crazy Horses head. This baby is huge. If you noticed the outline of the horses face, that is the glide lines that have been blasted out which will form the shape of his horse. Plus, at nine every night they have a laser show on the side of the mountain. I would have rather seen that then the Rushmore show. Lasers! Currently the project is receiving a great deal of attention, but still I strongly suggest if you are planning a trip anywhere near South Dakota, you check this place out. Also if you didn't check out the link where you can see the scale model of the finished memorial here it is again.

On the course of the trip I read a bit of Henry David Thoreau's Walden. Only a few pages in he says, "One piece of good sense would be more memorable than a monument as high as the moon." After seeing nothing but monuments, mountains, historic landmarks, and shit shooting out of the ground I've got majesty coming out the wazoo. So my immediate reaction to reading this was, buzz off you drunk, all this tells an endless story of the history of the western lands. Echoes of a people who lived with the land for ages, understanding it and holding it sacred, only to see it scarred first by manifest destiny, and then by pollution and development. The dreams of settlers seeking freedom in new lands, and hoping to create a world of prosperity for their children.

But now as I read Thoreau's words again I realize it is not the man-made beauty that speaks for this place. The lands them self tell prehistoric tales of volcanic eruption forming craters and calderas in seconds and then shaping mountain ranges through millennia. And then it is also those who have devoted their lives to the preservation of these lands who make these monuments what they are. The remaining tribes that live within Wyoming and the Dakotas, fighting everyday to save the forests and mountains from developers. The park rangers who stop people from throwing trash into the geysers, and who educate visitors as to why they should care. Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse are meaningless if people lack the "good sense" to carry on what the men and women behind the faces believed in. Independence from tyrants and foreign empires, the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Equality and citizenship for all peoples, and a higher standard of living for all, not just the bourgeois. Regardless of whether or not these men truly believed in these values and ideals, these are what they have left for us to defend. Jeez, I've gotten worse the Rushmore video. I must be suffering from majesty saturation. I need to get back to Maryland and go shopping at Sears or something.

~D
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Eating well on the road is hard. I am so fucking sick of garden-burgers.