Stonehenge War Memorial

I stupidly didn't take any establishing photos. Today was a marvelous sunny day, warm, but with the light and color of Autumn.

Stonehenge is a full-size replica of , umm, Stonehenge -- as it would be, were it still intact (and were it made of poured concrete.) It was built by Sam Hill after WWI, about a mile east of Maryhill, grandly overlooking the Columbia. I've seen it many times on the drive from La Grande to Portland, but never have visited it before. Sam Hill was into experimental building techniques -- the poured concrete is somewhat disappointing once you get up close, but it's still got beautiful views.

Hill was a pacifist. He had been told that the Druids practiced human sacrifice in Stonehenge, and he built the replica as a memorial to the soldiers from Klickitat County who died in the war, and as a protest against all wars which sacrifice our young. Each of the central columns has a name and birth- and death-date on it, of these thirteen young men -- aged from 18 to 35. Stonehenge (Washington) was founded upon a disproved theory (and did I mention the poured concrete?), but there are worse ways to be remembered a century later.

It is the first war memorial I've been to in a long time. I found it quite moving, thinking more of Baghdad than Flanders fields. Someone has installed a plaque on a long slab in the middle of the replica, calling out to the bravery and patriotism of those "who loved their country more than their lives" or some other claptrap, and we all agreed that Hill had not intended that sentiment.