Arriving in South Dakota Doug found an RV Park called the Pines and set up his motor home. It was at the base of the 5,725 high South Dakota Mountains and at the base of the Mount Rushmore Memorial. This was perfect place to relax and be a tourist. When he first arrived at the Memorial site he couldn’t believe the size and beauty of the entire mountain. He had seen it in books and on television but nothing compared to seeing it in person.
That evening he just rested and read articles about the two Memorials. Although Doug could see both the memorials in one day he wasn’t in a hurry. He would take his time and visit each one on separate days. He was going to get up the next morning and see the face of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln on a guided tour. He found that the sculpture was the idea of Doane Robinson to promote tourism in South Dakota. The sculpture was man made and designed by Gutzon Borglum and it took over four hundred workers at a cost of one million dollars of federal funds to build. It was started in 1927 and took fourteen years to complete. The United States Park Service took control of the memorial in 1933 while it was still under construction. (1)
The following morning Doug was up early and took the guided tour to see the Crazy Horse Memorial. He read about the Crazy Horse Memorial being carved in the mountain seventeen miles away from Mount Rushmore. The Lakota Indian Tribe was not happy about the Mount Rushmore sculpture because it was a tribute to four past presidents of the United States and not an Indian chief. Since it was their land they wanted their own sculpture. When finished the Crazy Horse Memorial will be the largest outdoor sculpture in the world. (1)
There is only so much you can see and do when you are a tourist so on the third day he was getting restless and knew he had to start planning his next target. He had read about targets he wanted to hit in Ohio so that would be his next stop.
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Chapter 24 - Ohio
The American Terrorist Page 23
