To carving rock in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
I'm here now in the little town of Custer, where another hard working crew is laboring
to finish a truly monumental job.
The monument in question is the Crazy Horse Memorial.
It was commissioned in 1939 and has never accepted a dime of federal or state money.
When it's done, it'll be the largest stone monument on the planet.
The monument is the brainchild of Polish American sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski.
Today, Korczak is buried beneath his life's work, literally.
And I'm here to get a sense of what it takes to carve a massive face out of solid granite.
Toward that end, I'll be working on the tip of one of crazy horse's outstretched fingers
and a tiny piece of his horse's mane.
Tomorrow, this monument won't look any different than it does today.
But maybe when the dust settles, I'll have a better understanding of why this incredible
artist began a wildly ambitious project.
He knew he'd never live to see completed.
Monique, Mo'Nique, what an honor to meet you.
Well, welcome to our home today.
Korczak's daughter, Monique, oversees the work as CEO, a job she's held since 2014.
What is the most important example you can show your family and the people who work
here?
Show up.
Every day.
Right. And be grateful for the people that you get to work with.
An attitude of gratitude.
And remember why we do what we do.
Monique, a sculptor and mountain carver in her own right, continues her father's vision
and leads a small team of rock carvers who labor each day to bring the monument ever
closer to completion.
Hey, you guys.
This gentleman needs to go pee a.
Porta potty right over that way.
Excuse me. Back in a flash.
Won't be but a moment. The show will start as soon as I take care of this.
Okay. Much better.
Three cups of coffee and a bottle of water.
Let's start the show.
All right. Which one of you geniuses is in charge?
Mike. Hi, Mike.
Too nice. You're Mike. Great to meet you.
Jesse. Jesse. Nice to meet you, Jesse.
Welcome. Nice to meet you, Mike. Jesse and Nate.
Man It's great to meet you guys.
Mike, Jesse, Jeff.
You got a good day planned for you.
Yeah. We'll get you inside and harness up.
Great.
Thanks again, Monique.
Wow. Look at.
Good grief. The first few.
Years of the project.
Korczak worked alone.
Then he and his wife, Ruth, had ten kids to help shoulder the burden.
I'll tell you what I know.
It's big.
Up close. It's hard to get your head around the scope and scale of the finished product.
But Korczak had a singular vision.
I think the first job is to get up to the top and then repel down and knock off some loose
rock. So let's do that.
There's 700 steps here.
These guys make nine trips a day or about three miles up and down.
They have it relatively easy, though.
Korczak made the original stairs and he made more daily trips lugging explosives and tools
by himself to lay the groundwork for what you see today.
I don't need to take a break.
I'm just pausing to enjoy the view.
It's not like I need to rest.
It's just so you know.
Gorgeous.
Yeah. Today we're above the clouds.
The job at hand. Clear away any loose stone off the face that might fall onto an
unsuspecting visitor.
Visitors hate that.
Nate is a rope access expert, and he's got most of his training on the job now.
Were you like a climber before you did this, or did you just learn this actually worked at
the sheriff's office?
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
This monument really is huge.
Crazy Horse's eyebrows measure eight feet in height.
His eyelids span 18ft and his head is 87ft tall.
In comparison, the faces on Mount Rushmore only reach Crazy Horse's eyebrows.
The finished monument will be over 100ft taller than Egypt's Great Pyramid.
Just kind of step over for now.
Nervous, Mike.
I'm good. I'm good. Good.
I mean, no, Sure. I'm nervous.
Sure. Sure. Why? It's only.
It's only 100.
Yeah, I see.
I'll get your rope guards in place here.
I imagine this could do a real number on the.
Yeah. Would you call the structural integrity of the.
Of that rope fabric component of our life saving line?
What would you do if you saw something untoward?
Get you on a different rope.
How would you do that?
I'll grab you. He'll jump onto his rope and he'll tie you off.
And you can go with me or Mike.
We can rescue anybody from about anywhere.
Snatch me off. Is that really an expression we use?
Yeah. When we come back, Nate here is going to snatch me off early on.
Dirty jobs.
Damn it.
Coming up. What is that bell I keep hearing?
It's like the sound of doom.
That's my bah bah bah.
That really is ominous, man.
There is so much upside and not looking down, man.
Just trust your equipment.
Yeah.
It's all the guys with you. Top end equipment, for sure.
That's great. Good.
I'm glad we didn't. So.
Yeah. Cut corners on the equipment.
Yep.
Let go of that handle and it'll close automatically.
And you're safe.
You can be hands free.
I just seems like.
It just doesn't.
It's not natural, is it?
It doesn't do any good to hold anything.
I realize that. Yes, this goes against the laws of God and man.
Certainly physics in the category of stupidly obvious questions.
This is granite, right?
Yes, correct. Solid.
There's other stuff in it.
Yeah. There's other pockets of different minerals.
Uh huh. See?
See, See?
I'm doing something.
This is not the memory the average tourist wants to take home with them from Crazy Horse
Widowmaker.
Have you repelled much then, Mike?
I've been repelling all my life.
Just not off the side of crazy mountains.
No, I just mean, like, repulsive.
I think we're good to repel down.
Yeah. Can we do a big push and go all.
Go for it. Mission Impossible.
Yeah.
Push with your feet and pull your hand out at the same time.
That's feel better without that iron bar up my ass?
Honestly? I
know you made it look easy.
At the risk of turning this into a documentary.
Chief Henry Standing Bear commissioned Korczak to design the monument as a way to
remember Crazy Horse, the greatest Lakota hero.
Korczak took it from there.
Sounds simple, right?
It's not just ask Jeff Hermansen.
The fact that that nose weighs 139 tons.
It's been supported, but.
We still want to monitor it to make sure that we have no movement and that it's preserved
for eons.
I want to know, like, what was the moment when you realized?
That Korczak was singular and that you were working for.
A true believer, right?
Like in the best sense of the word.
When he brought me and sat me down and, you know, told me what this whole project was,
that was one thing.
But then when I started working for him and I knew that, hey, this guy, you know, really
dedicated his life to something.
I mean, he didn't get a chance to see anything completed.
That's what kills me. Yeah, exactly.
Well, you know.
He saw.
It. Exactly.
He saw it.
But he didn't see.
It. And that's what you saw in him.
Just that vision.
Well, you can point to the face.
Yeah, you can say. See?
Yeah, it's happening.
Right? Right. This is happening.
Exactly. All right, we're to.
Over here. Over there.
We're going over here.
Great.