Re: Memorial Grove For Veterans Rediscovered

Redwood National and State Parks has a hidden jewel. A national heritage hiding in plain sight, it is a magnificent but forgotten tribute to the men and women who fought and helped win World War Two—the National Tribute Grove.

In the waning years of WWII, a drive went out to form memorials to veterans of the war. Small memorials were established all over the country, but there was one in particular that had national significance. Located in what is now the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park unit of Redwood National and State Parks, the National Tribute Grove consists of 5,000 acres of old-growth redwood forest preserved with a dual purpose – to remember and honor the Americans who came forth when their country called them to fight and to preserve this redwood grove as an American heritage. The grove was meant to be a memorial like no other. Sequoia sempervirens, the tree’s scientific name, translates roughly as Sequoia ever-green or ever-living. Some of these trees live as long as 2,000 years, longer than most man-made monuments. The founders of the memorial thought the ancient and scarred trees a most fitting medium to remember the veterans of WWII.

“Instead of stone or concrete, this monument is made up of living trees, survivors of centuries of combat with storm, drought, fire and flood,” said Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, a former Secretary of the Interior.

At the start of the war, this section of land was owned by the Del Norte Lumber Company. Save the Redwoods League contracted with the lumber company to buy the land as ten 500-acre parcels. They asked Americans to donate to the cause. In the words of Newton Drury, director of the National Park Service in 1949, the grove was to be known as an ever-living “memorial of eternal gratitude, eternally expressed” to those men and women who served in the armed forces of the United States in World War II, and so preserved American freedom.

It is a powerful story that the grove was created, but an equally powerful story that its location and meaning have been largely forgotten over time. Near the current entrance to the park campground, the memorial stone still sits in forest shade about twenty feet off the highway. Hundreds of people drive past it every day, not realizing it is there. There are few left who remember.

Redwood National and State Parks employees are working in partnership with the local veterans association and patriotic groups to revive the memory of this grove. Planning has begun for a rededication ceremony and celebration on Veterans Day, 2014.

I hope it is better than the "Peace Grove" in Oakland. That one is dedicated to people that have contributed to world peace.... including Ronald Reagan and a few popes.