Faces in the Stone

What does forever mean? Nothing really last forever, we all know that. But there are ways that we humans try to preserve the meaningful moments of our short existence here on this earth. Thoreau wrote in his book Walden that he believes a person writes down what is immortal to him/her. The words on a page (or on the internet) can live beyond the existence of the author, and the marks of a chisel taken to stone last well beyond the time of bones turning to dust. These are some of the thoughts that floated through my mind as my eyes gazed upon the faces carved into the granite of the 14 million year old Black Hills of South Dakota.

Mt. Rushmore was the vision of sculptor Gutzon Borglum. The granite chips began to fall away in 1927 and by the fall of 1941 the last boulders had rolled down the hill. There, gazing east over the nation from their high perch, the faces of four of the most influential founding fathers look with a quiet resoluteness at the plains below. It is an arresting site to behold; it is also a controversial one.

The sacred Black Hills of South Dakota were granted by treaty to the Lokota tribe in 1868 in perpetuity. Just eight years later the USA reassessed the meaning of "perpetuity" and took the hills again by force in the Great Sioux War of 1876. Then fifty years later, in what was seen as the ultimate slap in the face, the bust of four of the nation's presidents (all of which presided during the expansion of the nation and the subsequent domination of the west) were forever carved into the holy hills of the Dakotas. As I take in this awesome sight before me there is no way that I cannot be cognisant of all that it represents: joy, valor, pride, vision, horror, tears, and blood.

On the other side of the Black Hills another monument is taking shape. This one will be the largest mountain carving in all of human history. It is the mighty chief Crazy Horse atop his steed. He too faces the east but the rising sun falls on his stony eyes after the four white men before him. Will his horse ever allow him to catch up? I guess only the passing eons will tell.

Jerry and I departed Jackson Hole early in the morning for our flight to the east. As we climbed over the mountains into the rays of the morning sun, we made our way over the last mountain range of our travels (after being out west for these two weeks the Appalachians are going to look like beautiful hills when we cross them on Wednesday), the fabled Wind Rivers of Wyoming. This is a relatively small range but its ruggedness makes it look like it was transplanted here from Alaska. In fact it's sharp peaks held the only glaciers (albeit small glaciers) that we saw on our whole trip. Then just as fast as they were there, they were gone; slipping behind us in the west and waiting for our next travels to explore their secrets.

We continued on and soon found ourselves passing over our destination airport of Custer, WY on our way to overfly Mt. Rushmore. I have to say that I always thought of Mt. Rushmore as this massive monument visible from hundreds of miles away. it is not. It does have a size that creates an incredible sense of awe from the ground but from the air the 60' high faces are hardly discernible and it took us a good 10 minutes of changing vectors from ATC before we could make out this legendary sight. Good thing that it has a big parking lot otherwise I don't think that we would have found it! :)

When we landed at Custer Airport the couple that ran the FBO (Sierra Delta Aviation) Ben & Lori Baum could not have been more helpful and accomadating. They were set up with food and refreshments for pilots on their way to Oshkosh and they went over the top to get us what we needed. They are set up for camping on the field with showers in the office and everything. So, all you pilots out there, make sure that you put down Custer as a stop on your next adventure.

We headed into town and got some of the last rooms available. With Sturgis right around the corner Custer was a happing place. We contacted a local tour company and after a little negotiation they picked us up and drove us over to see the monument 30 miles away. I have already chronicled my feelings about being a this amazing place but it was truly incredible. Jerry and I both agreed that our driver Tom was the perfect representation of small town SD life. He was great and took us on some roads that we would never have seen otherwise.

Sleep will come fast tonight. It has been a long day and I look forward to my dreams of the faces carved in stone...

Tomorrow: across the planes to the largest aviation gathering in the world, Oshkosh's AirVenture!