Ruth Ziolkowski, who has died aged 87, spent much of her life helping her husband, the Polish-American sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, to achieve his dream of transforming a mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota into a colossal sculpture depicting the 19th-century Oglala Lakota war chief Crazy Horse. When Korczak died in 1982, the project could have foundered; it had been in progress for 34 years and still, despite vast quantities of rock having been blasted away, the pink granite crag did not look even remotely like a warrior on horseback.
But Ruth more than made the project her own and, with help from several of the Ziolkowskis' children and a charitable foundation, progress on the mountain accelerated. The first definable feature, the rider's face, 26.67 metres (87ft 6in) high, was completed in 1998, in time for the 50th anniversary of the very first blast. Work subsequently began on the next phase the horse's head, 66.75 metres high. Although there is still no estimated completion date, Ruth never lost her faith that her husband's vision would eventually be realised; she said her wish was to "live more years than possible because I would love to see it finished".
Continue reading...