Nov. 9—BEMIDJI — A new monument will be unveiled at the Bemidji Veterans Memorial on Monday, Nov. 11 as the community celebrates Veterans Day.
The ceremony will take place at 1 p.m. at 130 Minnesota Ave. SW, next to the Beltrami County History Center. The monument will be the largest piece of the current memorial, standing at over 8 feet high.
“I think people are going to be very surprised and pleased,” said Gary Guggenberger, chairman of the Veterans Memorial Committee.
The monument consists of three panels and an embedded bronze medallion. The name “Bemidji Veterans Memorial” is engraved prominently on a large center panel.
It also features an embedded bronze medallion embedded above the monument’s name on the center panel and the Great Seal of the United States. The other two panels feature a vertical American flag and a tribute with the engraved message “Honoring Those Who Served.”
The Freedom Defenders Veterans Memorial was dedicated in May of 2006. It was turned over to the city of
Bemidji in 2008
and later renamed Bemidji Veterans Memorial.
The naming stone has been installed over the past month. It was constructed using Minnesota-based Mesabi Black granite from a quarry near Babbitt, by Coldspring, a company with a history that dates back to 1898.
When the United States entered World War II, Coldspring — known then as Cold Spring Granite Company — pursued war contracts and converted its plants to handle steel instead of stone, and workers who had been quarrymen became welders. The company manufactured ship bottoms and hull sections for the war.
Coincidentally, Guggenberger grew up in Cold Spring, Minn., and was a classmate of Patrick Alexander, who became president of Cold Spring Granite. Now retired, Patrick was able to connect Guggenberger with the company’s lead designer.
“I told him what we were needing, and he sent a prototype within a few days,” Guggenberger said. “It was exactly what we were looking for.”
After the committee approved the design, it was time to start raising money to pay for it.
“The community really came together,” Guggenberg said. Donations totaling $56,000 came from Ralph Gracie American Legion Post 14, the North Country Disabled American Veterans, the Bemidji Rotary Club, Beltrami Electric Cooperative’s Operation Round-Up, the First National Bank Foundation, the Blackduck American Legion Auxiliary and the Beltrami County Board of Commissioners.
All of the installation labor was donated by Dave and Ron Cuperus of Cuperus Construction, Bemidji Welding Supply, Lakes Concrete, Christiansen Construction and Finishing Touch Landscaping.
Guggenberger, who spent 1,491 days as a prisoner of war in South Vietnam and Cambodia after he was captured on Jan. 14, 1969, said potential development of the Rail Corridor could mean expansion for the Veterans Memorial.
“The board has ideas to expand,” he said. “Some people say, ‘What’s wrong with what you’ve got?’ and I say, ‘What’s wrong with more?’ The way a lot of Vietnam guys came home, that’s why I’m doing this. I told the mayor, ‘You will be proud of it.’ The city will have something to brag about.”
Guggenberger also would like to find a way to recognize nurses who have served in wars.
“I want to honor nurses because they have never been recognized,” he said. “Especially combat nurses.”
Donations to the Bemidji Veterans Memorial may be made online at
bemidjiveteransmemorial.com/donate-1.
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