St. Helens Holds Veterans Memorial Plaza Dedication at McCormick Park

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 12, 2019

St. Helens, Ore. – The Columbia County community is invited to attend a Veterans Memorial Plaza Dedication at McCormick Park in St. Helens on Friday, November 1 at noon.

The dedication ceremony will celebrate the partnerships between the City of St. Helens, VFW Post 1440, businesses, and community members who helped to expand the existing Veterans Memorial in McCormick Park to a full-sized plaza to host larger veterans events and honor Columbia Country veterans who died during conflict or passed away after returning home due to a war injury.

The dedication ceremony will last approximately half an hour. Bring a brown bag lunch and enjoy a picnic in the park with guests after the conclusion of the formal dedication. Light refreshments will be available.

Following the formal dedication on November 1, the Plaza will later be used on Monday, November 11, 2019, to host an annual Veterans Day ceremony at 11 a.m. led by VFW Post 1440.

Project History

In April 2017, the City of St. Helens was awarded a $46,770 grant from the Oregon Parks & Recreation Veterans & War Memorials Grant Program to support the expansion of McCormick Park’s existing Veterans Memorial. The Memorial paid tribute to those servicemen who were killed in World War I, World War II, and Korea.

Since its original dedication ceremony on November 11, 2010, there have been several increasingly popular countywide Veterans Day events held at the memorial. With state senators and house representatives in attendance as guest speakers, the events quickly outgrew the space available for attendees.

Through a partnership with VFW Post 1440 which contributed over $48,000 toward the current project, the memorial plaques were expanded to honor Columbia County veterans who have lost their lives in more recent conflicts.

The project was also made possible thanks to the assistance and contributions from Lower Columbia Engineering, CalPortland, Scappoose Sand and Gravel, Pacific Stainless, Senator Betsy Johnson, and Brandon Sundeen from the Columbia County Museum Association.

The expansion project included:

• Increasing the footprint of the existing memorial to provide more room for Veterans Day ceremonies and other VFW events.
• Installing a new covered area to provide additional seating options for disabled veterans during inclement weather.
• Recreating the former monuments with additional names from World War I, World War II, and Korea discovered through additional research.
• Installing additional monuments to honor servicemen and servicewomen who were lost in more recent conflicts, including Vietnam and conflicts in the Middle East.

About the Original McCormick Park Veterans Memorial

The VFW Post 1440 hand-built the first St. Helens Veterans Memorial, which was originally located along Highway 30 at Columbia Boulevard. It included wooden plaques with hand carved names of Columbia County war casualties from World War I, World War II, and Korea. The original wooden plaques and a 105 Howitzer Cannon were dedicated in 1958. When the Oregon Department of Transportation widened Highway 30, certain items from this memorial were moved to McCormick Park, but not the original wooden plaques.

Members of the VFW Post 1440 were very interested in finding or re-creating the lost plaques. A local engineering firm, Lower Columbia Engineering, volunteered to design and build new monuments that would be more durable replicas of the original wooden plaques. Considerable donations and public and private in-kind contributions helped fund the project.

Similar to the original project, Lower Columbia Engineering played an instrumental role in the design and construction management for the current expansion project. 

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For further information regarding the Veterans Memorial Plaza Dedication Ceremony, please contact St. Helens Communications Officer Crystal Farnsworth at 503-366-8215 or crystalf@ci.st-helens.or.us.