MINOT, N.D. (AP) - A nearly 100-year-old monument in a Minot cemetery is believed to be one of the first permanent memorials in the nation to recognize local soldiers who died during World War I.
The white marble monument was erected by the Girls Military Squad of Minot in May 1918, the Minot Daily News (https://bit.ly/2kUrhr0 ) reported.
Susan Wefald has been compiling North Dakota information for the national World War I Memorial Inventory Project for the past two years. She brought the monument to the attention of the project director, Mark Levitch.
“Around North Dakota I have found about 40 World War I monuments and memorials,” she said.
Levitch said there are only a handful of memorials from 1917 that celebrate the troops and one memorial in Arkansas that honors some of the first members of the American Expeditionary Forces killed in the war.
The memorial appears to be one of the first major, permanent monuments to local war dead, and the best documented. He said it’s unusual for memorials to have been erected that early in the war.
“That really stands out,” he said.
Most monuments were made after the war ended.
The United States entered WWI in April 1917.
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Information from: Minot Daily News, https://www.minotdailynews.com
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