Master Gardeners Help Return Memorial Significance to Memorial Highway
On Saturday of Memorial Day weekend a memorial stone was dedicated in the WSU Skagit County Master Gardeners Discovery Garden at the WSU Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center near Mount Vernon, restoring the memorial significance of the nearby Memorial Highway, SR 536.
 WSU Skagit County Extension Director Ned Zaugg welcomes those attending the memorial dedication. |
In 1931 the highway was designated as Memorial Highway to honor Skagit County citizens who gave their lives in World War I. Both sides of the roadway were planted with 180 elm trees to memorialize the Skagit County veterans. Today all but three of the trees have died or been cut down.
Master Gardener Julie Powell, manager of the Discovery Garden, told those attending the ceremony that there is no way to know the fate of all the lost trees, but several were the victims of weather, some were lost to road expansion and growth, and likely some succumbed to diseases.
 Skagit County World War II veterans organize before dedication of the new World War I memorial. |
Thanks to the dream of LeRoy Anderson, retired owner of Kern Funeral Home in Mount Vernon, the efforts and generosity of his daughter Connie LeSourd, and the work of the Skagit County Master Gardeners and NWREC staff the new memorial was installed near the highway. Anderson’s uncle was one of the WWI veterans memorialized.
The stone was obtained by Anderson and engraved to again memorialize the Skagit County men and women lost in “the war to end all wars” and placed in a circular arbor in the rose garden area. Anderson was in the front row at the ceremony and beamed as the memorial was dedicated.
A contingent of veterans that included Skagit County Commissioner Don Munks and Mount Vernon Mayor Bud Norris read the names of many Skagit County citizens who gave their lives in World War I. Following the reading a small flock of pigeons was released to symbolize the freedom for which the service men and women fought.
WSU provided the space, the Master Gardeners will care for the site, and Kern Funeral Home will maintain the monument. A special fund has been set up by the Skagit County Master Gardener Foundation to cover the costs of the new landscaping which now enhances the monument’s setting.
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