Trip to New Mexico & Colorado in 2009 by Edward W. Lollis Septemeber 2009

During an 11-day, 3507-mile/5681-km car trip from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Colorado Springs, Colorado, and return in September 2009, Schera and I visited 14 sites containing 28 peace monuments (broadly defined), including four "museums for peace." The 28 monuments range in age from 1000 years old to not yet completely constructed, and each is very interesting and instructive in its own way. As usual, visiting a selection of peace monuments proves the amazing variety in which the human ideal of "peace" has been celebrated and preserved by different people at difrerent times.

My peace monuments website contains photos, hot links, and other specific information about these and other peace monuments. The various pages of the website (to which links are provided below) place each monument in its thematic, geographic, and temporal contexts. This essay contains some additional, more personal notes about each of the 14 sites and 26 monuments. The sites are presented in their historic (chronological) order.

By no means do these sites contain all of the peace monuments on our route. At the bottom of this webpage are interactive links to an additional 34 peace monuments which we knowingly by-passed on this trip in order to see these 14 sites and 26 monuments, most of which we had not previously visited.

1000 - Taos Pueblo, Taos, New Mexico.
(See New Mexico, Before 1800, American Indians, Buildings.)

About 1000 - Taos Pueblo, Taos, New Mexico (USA). "The only living Native American community designated both a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and a National Historic Landmark [by the US Department of the Interior]." Image shows the multi-story Hlaauma/North Building which has been continuously inhabited for over 1000 years.

I used shoe boxes to model this Indian "apartment building" when I attended grade school in Indianapolis, Indiana, about 1948. So I was excited to visit it at last. The Taos people have been very clever in preserving the famous adobe "high rise" and several surrounding acres containing many single-story adobe homes, outdoor ovens, drying racks, two Catholic churches (c.1619 and 1850), and a cemetery. Tourists are permitted daytime access (at $10/head). Our guide said -- but who's to know? -- that 300 members of the tribe live without electricity or running water inside the adobe fence which surrounds the preserved area, corrals the tourists, and separates the preserved peublo from immediately surounding homes, which -- so far as we could tell -- generally have trees, cars, electricity, and running water. Signs restricting access to the upper levels of the pueblo and to four sacred kivas are printed in English, German, Spanish, and Japanese. One of the pueblo's many crafts and jewelry vendors -- Sonny Spruce (505-758-9898) -- has a wall plastered with the paper currencies of many countries, and he assured us that Germans are frequent visitors to the pueblo and patrons of his shop. The pueblo is a kind of living "museum for peace" since it tells a story of cultural survival despite many threats by Spanish and American rulers over the last four centuries.

1356? - San Jose Bell, San Miguel Mission, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
(See New Mexico, Before 1800, Bells.)

1356? - San Jose Bell, San Miguel Mission Chapel, 401 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, New Mexico (USA). Once hung in the bell tower. "An inscription on the bell reads 'San Jose ruega por nosotros 9 De 1356 / St. Joseph pray for us December 9, 1356.' Some claim this Spanish bell was brought by the Ortiz family from Mexico in 1712. There is also some speculation that it was cast in 1856 in the Parroquia in Santa Fe or in Cerrillos in 1836." San Miguel has been a place of worship since 1598; current chapel built in 1610. Click here for more, somewhat conflicting information about the bell, said to be the oldest bell in America. Bell photo by EWL 12Sep09.

Church bells, fire bells, meeting hall bells, and farm bells all declined in importance during the 20th century. Yet certain large bells have become permanent "monuments" -- whether intentionally or unintentionally. One of the most important symbols of the United States is the "Liberty Bell" cast in London (England) in 1752, but at least one American bell is even older -- the "Liberty Bell of the West" cast in La Rochelle (France) in 1741. Manhattan Project scientist Alvin Weinberg [1915-2006] maintained that the 1964 peace bell in Hiroshima (Japan) and the 1993 International Friendship Bell in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (USA), would survive at least 1,000 years and forevermore help strengthen mankind's taboo against the use of nuclear weapons. So it was interesting to visit this ancient Spanish bell whose inscription indicates that it was cast 653 years ago. As Weinberg foresaw, the bell seems as robust as the day it was cast. Too bad its "chain of custody" is incomplete and thus casts suspcicion on the validty of its inscription. A remarkable relic of Spanish America nonetheless.

1867-2009 - Cherokee Nation of Oklahima, Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
(See Oklahoma, 1850-1899, American Indians, Museums.)

1829 - Cherokee Courthouse / Tahlonteeskee, Gore, Oklahoma (USA). "A reconstructed 1829 council house and courthouse. Beside it is the original cabin. The museum displays items about the area's first Cherokee settlement." Used by some of the earliest Cherokee settlers -- before the forced removal in 1838-1839.

1851-1887 - Cherokee National Female Seminary, Park Hill, 6 miles south of downtown Tahlequah, Oklahoma (USA). Assisted by Mount Holyoke Female Seminary of South Hadley, Massachusetts. Building burned on Easter Sunday 1887. Seminary reestablished on north side of Tehlequah in 1889 & eventually became Northeastern Commuity University (NCU). Park Hill site used for Cherokee Heritage Center in 1967.

1867 - Historic Courthouse, Cherokee Nation, Capitol Sqaure, downtown Tahlequah, Oklahoma (USA). Original Cherokee tribal buildings at this site were burned in 1863 by Confederate Cherokees led by General Stand Watie [1806-1871]. This building was constructed after the Civil War to be the Cherokee National Capitol.

June 27, 1967 - Cherokee Heritage Center (CHC), Park Hill, 6 miles south of downtown Tahlequah, Oklahoma (USA). Site of former Cherokee National Female Seminary (qv). Includes Tsa La Gi Ancient Village, Cherokee National Museum (qv), & other components. "Our Ancient Village showcases the way a traditional Cherokee community would have looked prior to European contact. The village features replicas of traditional homes and meeting houses like those used long before forced removal from the present-day southeastern U.S."

1974 - Cherokee National Museum, part of the Cherokee Heritage Center (CHC), Park Hill, 6 miles south of downtown Tahlequah, Oklahoma (USA). Includes "Trail of Tears" exhibit.

1978 - Memorial Chapel, on grounds of Cherokee Heritage Center (CHC), Park Hill, south of Tahlequah, Oklahoma (USA). Text of sign: "Dedicated to the memory of all those Cherokees who failed to complete their journey over 'the trail where they cried', 1938-39, this chapel is a memoral bequest by Jimlee 'Ho Chee Nee' Burton, 1913-1977. Erected in 1978." Photo by EWL 10Sep09.

1979 - W.W. Keeler Complex, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, US Highway 62, south of Tahlequah, Oklahoma (USA). "The complex is the seat of tribal government near Tahlequah, capital of the Cherokee Nation, which is the federally recognized government of the Cherokee people and thereby has sovereign status granted by treaty and law." William Wayne (Bill) Keeler [1908-1987] was appointed principal chief of the Cherokee Nation 1949-1971 and was elected chief 1971-1975. He was also CEO of the Phillips Petroleum Corporation. The tribal complex was named for him in 1987. Photo by EWL 10Sep09.

The Cherokees once dominated what is now East Tennessee and major portions all five surrounding states. But most members of the tribe were forceably removed to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) in the winter of 1838-1839. Today the Federal government recognizes three separate Cherokee tribes, including the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians which is centered on Cherokee, North Carolina, and maintains the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum near our home in Knoxville, Tennessee. Since Schera and I are a little familiar with the Eastern Band (and have the Cherokee language on our driveway peace pole), we wanted to visit the City of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, which is the capital city of both of the other two Cherokee tribes: The Cherokee Nation and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians (UKB). Except for one license plate, we saw little evidence of the UKB, but, as shown above, we easily found three major facilities of the Cherokee Nation. The "Cherokee Nation Complex" includes a sprawling modern one-story office building (with attractive displays inside and out), a Cherokee veterans memorial, police station, playing fields, and casino. The Cherokee Heritage Center surprized me. Instead of being located on US Highway 62 with a large sign to attract visitors, it's on a rural road a mile or two off the beaten path, surrounded by farm land, and semi-hidden behind a large grove of trees. I could not discern the history of the trees. They are where they are for some historic reason and not something which can be moved to a more prominent location.

1918 - "International World War Peace Tree," St. Joseph Avenue at Orchard Road, Darmstadt, Indiana.
(See Indiana, 1915-1919, Trees, Germany, World War I.)

November 11, 1918 - "International World War Peace Tree," St. Joseph Avenue at Orchard Road, Darmstadt, near Evansville, Vanderburgh County', Indiana (USA). Private property of Charles & Beth Skeels. Her German immigrant ancestors planted this linden and designated it a "peace tree" on Armistice Day at the end of World War I. Both photos by EWL 18Sep09.

I learned of this tree when Google notified me about an article in a Memorial Day 2008 edition of the Evansville newspaper. On September 18, the last day of our trip and the day we decided to try to find the tree, we received an email out of the blue from Glory-Jean Grieff, "public historian" and author of "Remembrance, Faith & Fancy: Outdoor Public Sculpture in Indiana" (2005), asking if I knew about this tree and telling me exactly where it is. We left I-64, headed for Darmstadt, came across St. Joseph Avenue, and found the tree immediately after asking two farmers for Orchard Road. (They answered our question by saying, "keep going down St. Joseph until you come to some US flags around a thing called a 'peace tree.'") The tree stands at a rural intersection with no building in sight. It's surrounded by rolling but fertile agricultural land apparently settled by Germans. I find it interesting that the tree is a linden from Germany. Somehow I've received the idea that lindens (also called limetrees) were widely planted in Germany as symbols of peace, but I've not been able to find any confirmation of this, and I know of only one specific friedenslinde in Germany (which dates from 1871).

1926 - Liberty Memorial, 100 West 26th Street, Kansas City, Missouri.
(See Missouri, 1925-1929, Museums, Towers, Walls, World War I.)

November 11, 1926 - Liberty Memorial, 100 West 26th Street, Kansas City, Missouri (USA). Includes a 217-foot/66-meter tower, 148-foot/45-meter frieze, two exhibit halls, and two huge sphinxes named "Memory" (facing East toward Europe) & "Future" (facing West). Ground was broken November 1, 1921, by Lieutenant General Baron Jacques (Belgium), General Armando Diaz (Italy), Marshal Ferdinand Foch (France), General John J. Pershing (USA), and Admiral David Beatty (UK).

November 11, 1926 - "Great Frieze of War & Peace," Liberty Memorial, 100 West 26th Street, Kansas City, Missouri (USA). "Carved into the limestone of the north wall (left image). 148 feet/45 meters wide & 18 feet/5.5 meters high. One of largest in the world. Sculpted by Edmond Amateis [1897-1981]. Depicts progress from war to peace." Click here for its five inscriptions. Faces KC's palatial 1914 Union Station, now rarely used for trains (right image).

December 2, 2006 - National World War I Museum, Liberty Memorial, 100 West 26th Street, Kansas City, Missouri (USA). Totally reconstructed underground museum opened December 2, 2006. Left image shows new audio-visual performance including life-size trench scene. Right image shows 9,000 poppies, each representing 1,000 combatant deaths.

For some reason -- politics probably had something to do with it -- Congress decreed that the US national memorial and museum for World War I would be in Kansas City, Missouri. When the complex was dedicated on Armistice Day 1926, it contained many symbols of liberty (a 217-foot tower), of hope (two sphinxes -- "Memory" facing East toward Europe and "Future" facing West), and of peace (a 148-foot frieze depicting the transition from war to peace). The museum was completely upgraded a few years ago (to include an extremely wide multimedia projection screen and a field of 9,000 poppies, each representing 1,000 combatant deaths) and reopened to the public on December 2, 2006. The single-line inscription across the 148-foot top of the frieze reads as follows:

"THESE HAVE DARED BEAR THE TORCHES OF SACRIFICE AND SERVICE. THEIR BODIES RETURN TO DUST BUT THEIR WORK LIVETH FOREVERMORE. --o-- LET US STRIVE ON TO DO ALL WHICH WE MAY ACHIEVE AND CHERISH A JUST AND LASTING PEACE AMONG OURSEVES AND WITH ALL NATIONS."
Here are the four shorter Biblical inscriptions in the body of the frieze:

"Behold a pale horse and his name that sat on him was death and hell followed him." [Revelation 6:8]
"Violence shall no more be heard in thy land wasting nor destruction within thy borders." [Issiah 60:8]
"What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God." [Micah 6:8]
"Then shall the earth yield her increase and God even our own God shall bless us." [Psalms 67:6]

1973-2007 - Peace Monuments of Ed Grothus [1923-2009], Los Alamos, New Mexico.
(See New Mexico, 1970-1974, Atomic, Peace Symbol, Nobel Peace Prize, Eccentric Monuments, Monuments For Sale.)

1973 - Omega Peace Institute (OPI), Arkansas Avenue, Los Alamos New Mexico (USA). Next door to Black Hole (qv). Former Grace Lutheran Church purchased in 1973 by Ed Grothus [1923-2009]. Includes CND peace sign & two broken bombs. Signs say "No one is secure unless everyone is secure" & "OMEGA PEACE INSTITUTE, FIRST CHURCH OF HIGH TECHNOLOGY, BLACK HOLE SYNOD, Critical Mass Every Sunday with Bomb Unworship Service. Don Eduardo de Los Alamos, Pastor."

1978 - Black Hole, 4015 Arkansas Avenue, North Mesa, Los Alamos, New Mexico (USA). Next door to Omega Peace Institute (qv). One unbroken bomb on top. "In 1976, Ed Grothus [1923-2009] acquired the adjacent Piggly Wiggly grocery store (“Mesa Market”). When the grocery operation ceased in 1978, Grothus' Los Alamos Sales Company began moving 'military surplus' into the building, and it became known as 'The Black Hole,' because 'everything went in, and not even light could get out.'” Click here to see a YouTube video of Ed Grothus giving a tour of the "world famous Black Hole of Los Alamos."

After 2005 - Memorial to Joseph Rotblat, in front of the Omega Peace Institute (OPI), Arkansas Avenue, North Mesa, Los Alamos, New Mexico (USA). Erected by Ed Grothus [1923-2009]. Sir Joseph Rotblat [1908-2005] was a Polish-born Jew & British-naturalised physicist who worked at Los Alamos during World War II and became the only physicist to leave the Manhattan Project on the grounds of conscience (though others later refused to work on atomic bombs after the defeat of Japan). He was secretary general of the Pugwash Conferences on Science & World Affairs from its founding [in 1957] until 1973. Rotblat & the Pugwash Conferences jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 for their efforts towards nuclear disarmament." Photo by EWL 12Sep09.

December 2007 - Doomsday Stones, Los Alamos, New Mexico (USA). As noted by Grothus' son Mike, Ed Grothus [1923-2009] "designed & commissioned two granite obelisks to mark the explosion of the first atomic bomb. The obelisks were quarried & carved in China, then shipped to Los Alamos in December 2007. The obelisks are white granite & are designed to sit on black bases, 'doomsday stones,' engraved with text in 15 languages that describe the 'most significant man-made event in human history.' Important to him among the messages engraved in the stone was, 'No one is secure unless everyone is secure.' When erected, each monument will weigh over 39 tons and stand nearly 40 feet tall. At the time of his death [on February 12, 2009], Grothus remained optimistic that the obelisks would find a home." (NB: Martin Luther King, Jr., famously said, "'No one is free, until everyone is free.")

Schera and I were the latest visitors to be stunned by the spectacular drive up the mesa on which the A-bomb assembly facility was hidden during world War II. We arrived too late on Saturday, September 12, to visit the DOE-owned Bradbury Science Museum (or the Los Alamos Historical Museum), but we found the adjacent privately-owned museum shop and Otowi Station Book Store still open, and I talked to one of its two owners, Michele Vochosky (505-662-9589). I told her about The Atomic Bomb and American Society: New Perspectives (University of Tessessee Press, 2009), about the International Friendship Bell in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and about the Children's Peace Statue in Santa Fe, New Mexico (see below), and I asked her if there was anything like a peace monument in Los Alamos. In reply, she asked me if I hadn't ever heard of Ed Grothus who lived 60 years in Los Alamos but died early this year. I hadn't. Grothus, she then explained, was best known for purchasing great quantities of surplus scientific equipment from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and only occasionally selling some of it. As a result of this imbalance, his two adjacent properties (to which Grothus gave the name "Black Hole") overflow, indoors and out, with an amazing array of technical paraphenalia, both large and small. Grothus is less well known as Los Alamos' only resident pacifist, and his older property -- pictured above -- sports a variety of eccentric peace monuments, the most sober of which is a touching memorial to the only Manhattan Project "defector" (and Nobel Peace Prize laureate), Sir Joseph Rotblat [1908-2005]. In back of the "First Church of High Technology," I startled a large mule deer who ran off about 30 feet, then simply stopped and stared at me. I'd never seen one up close before. Its face really did look like that of a mule.

1986-2008 - Peace Farm, US Highway 60, between Amarillo & Panhandle, Texas.
(See Texas, 1986, Atomic, Peace Camps, Statues, Arches, Women, England, Scotland.)

1986 - Peace Farm, US Highway 60, Panhandle, Texas (USA). 20 acres of land on the southern edge of the Pantex Plant. "Established as an information source about the Pantex Plant & to stand as a visible witness against the weapons of mass destruction being assembled there." Both photos taken 11Sep09 by EWL. Entry #983 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001).

Date? - "Madre del Mundo" sculpture," Peace Farm, between Amarillo & Panhandle, Texas (USA). Sculpted by Marsha Anne Gomez [1951-1998]. Entry #982 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001). EWL visited 11Sep09 & found the sculpture missing. According to a Peace Farm website, "Our Madre Sculpture is being kept safe and sound by one of our most trusted supporters." There is an identical sculpture near the Nevada Test Site at the "Temple of the Goddess Spirituality Dedicated to Sekhmet" at Cactus Springs, Indian Springs, Nevada.

In the tradition of the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp in England (1981-2000) and of the Faslane Peace Camp in Scotland (since 1982), peace activists created the Peace Farm in 1986 to "establish an information source about the Pantex Plant and to stand as a visible witness against the weapons of mass destruction being assembled there." Just across US Highway 60 and a parallel railroad track from the Peace Farm, the so-called Pantex Plant is the only ,facility in the USA used for the assembly and disassembly of nuclear weapons. On September 11, Schera and I drove east of Amarillo in a pea soup fog, expecting to find and talk to a group of resident peace activists. We found the farm alright, but it was very sad. We saw nobody the whole time we were there.. The Madre del Mundo sculpture had been removed and both Peace Farm houses abandoned. Their doors were standing open, and we walked through every room. So far as we could tell, personal possessions of any value were gone, but we still found prenty of bedding, cooking gear, files about the nuclear bombs, wall hangings, protest posters, empty softdrink cans, etc., etc., all in disarray. (The photo at left shows posters in a bathtub.) We left everything as we found it except for two refrigerator magnets inscribed "Peace Test" and two Christmas cards. Each card depicts two flying cranes and is imprinted as follows: "Artist: Michael Hannom, Peace Farm Staff. 'Peace Cranes Over Pantex.' Inscription (in Japanese): 'Peace on Earth.' Each winter, Pantex and the Peace Farm are visited by thousands of sandhill cranes. Cranes are a Japanese symbol of peace." In the cardinal directions from the base of the Madre del Mundo, four adobe arches painted white float in a sea of unmown grass. A mile away, an historical marker at the side of US-60 recongizes pioneer Thomas Cree who walked 70 miles round trip in 1888 to obtain for his wife the first tree ever planted in the Texas Panhandle.

1991 - National Civil Rights Muesum, Lorraine Motel, Memphis, Tennessee.
(See Tennessee, 1991, Martin Luther King, Museums, Sculpture, Flames, Netherlands.)

September 28, 1991 - National Civil Rights Museum (NCRM), Memphis, Tennessee (USA). Includes facade & two rooms of Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Lobby contains "Movement to Overcome" sculpture & World Peace Flame (qv). Click here for the Wikipedia article. Entry #932 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001). Described on pages 321-322 of "A Traveller's Guide to the Civil Rights Movement" by Jim Carrier (2004). One of 27 US museums in "Museums for Peace Worldwide" edited by Kazuyo Yamane (2008). Click here for other musuems for peace.

September 28, 1991 - "Movement to Overcome" (Civil Rights Monument), in lobby of National Civil Rights Museum (NCRM), Memphis, Tennessee (USA). Bronze sculpture constructed on site by Michael Pavlovsky. Left image is artist's conception. Right image is close-up photo taken 09Sep09..

September 27, 2002 - World Peace Flame (WPF #2), in lobby of National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tennessee (USA). At site of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, assassination on April 4, 1968. Second of several WPF's sponsored by the World Peace Flame Foundation in Heteren (Netherlands). Original WPF is at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands). Click here for other peace flames. Photo by EWL.

Wonderful museum. Combines historic preservation (a 41-year old outdoor crime scene a city block wide) with a purpose-built interior cleverly designed to accomodate many small and some heroic in size such as an arch of the Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, and a full size Montgomery bus with Rosa Parks sitting primly inside. The black sculpture "Movement to Overcome" is impressive but clogs the lobby and is very poorly illuminated, thus obscuring the many intricately detailed figures on its surface. The "World Peace Flame" is set against a lobby wall and bears no indication of its linkage to the original flame on the grounds of the Peace Palace in The Hague and to similar sattelite monuments in the Netherlands, Wales, and New South Wales (Australia). A wall in the latter part of the museum names persons in many different countries who have been assassinated while working for peace and justice. Another wall names recipients of the museum's annual Freedom Award, including such non-Americans as the Dahai Lama, Bono, Desmond Tutu, and Leck Welensa. This is a large and excellent "museum for peace," but I very much doubt if its director (Beverley Robinson) has ever even heard of the International Network of Museums for Peace (INMP).

1995 - Children's Peace Statue, Ghost Ranch, Paseo de Peralta at 401 Old Taos Highway, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
(See New Mexico, 1995, Children, Sadako Sasaki, Sculpture, Globes.)

1995 - Children's Peace Statue, Ghost Ranch, Paseo de Peralta at 401 Old Taos Highway, Santa Fe, New Mexico (USA). A project of Arroyo del Oso Elementary School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Proposed for Los Alamos but turned down by the Los Alamos County Council. The statue is a popular venue for the deposition of origami peace cranes. Still owned by the Presbyterian Church, "Ghost Ranch" is now a $110/night B&B & conference center but was a home for retired pastors and called "Plaza Resolana" when the statue was located here in 1995. Entry #618 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001). Click here for a 1995 article about the statue.

I learned about the Children's Peace Monument while researching the International Friendship Bell in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The history of each monument is remarkabley parallel. Both were conceived by private donors to symbolize "peace" in one of the country's three cities secretly created during World War II for the construction of the first atomic bombs. In the case of Oak Ridge, the city council finally agreed in 1995 to accept the Japanese bell as a symbol of international friendship. But -- in the case of Los Alamos -- the county council decided in the same year to turn down the Children's Peace Statue, and its donors found this alternative site in nearby Santa Fe. (That was the same year that Congress disallowed the Air & Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution to display the B-29 Enola Gay in the context of strategic bombing and human suffering.) On September 12, barely started driving on the Old Taos Highway before we discovred that #401 is the first address after the Paseo de Peralta which is a sort of ring road on three sides of downtown Santa Fe. We didn't spot the statue, but I entered the building talked to desk clerk Marilyn Ragan who immediately pointed to a statue of Sadako Sasaki [1943-1955] just inside the front door. A sign on Sadako's statue invites guests to visit the Children's Peace Statue in the far side of the garden on the Paseo side of the Ghost Ranch building. Nowhere -- at the Sadako statue or in Ms. Regan's memory -- was there any connection to Los Alamos. Festooned with aging garlands of origami peace cranes, the Children's Statue sits on a concrete pad which has apparently been in place for a number of years. I conclude that it was deliberately erected in the distant part of the garden. This is unfortuantely because in the greater part of the garden a large number outdoor animal sculptures have recently been added by a local artist who has them for sale, and the Children's Peace Statue is partially hidden behind two life-size black elephants. Walking up to the statue gave me a surprise: All I'd ever seen before were distant photos, but up close you can see that the "continents" on the globe-like sculpture are composed of many small sculptures of children, toys, insects. flowers, etc. (something like the many small figures on "Movement to Overcome" in Memphis, Tennessee).

1998 - Peace Garden, Home of Prof. Dick Bennett, Fayetteville, Arkansas.
(See Arkansas, 1998, Gardens, Sculpture, Bells, Peacemakers, Peace Bibliography.)

1998 - Peace Rock, private peace garden of Prof. Dick Bennett, Fayetteville, Arkansas (USA). Sculpted by Hank Kaminsky. 17 inches wide, 40 inches long, and 19 inches tall Bears names of 30 US peacemakers. Click here for an essay by Bennett which describes the rock and names all 30 peacemakers. Entry #31 in the "Peace Movement Directory" by James Richard Bennett (2001).

2001 - "Peace Movement Directory: North American Organizations, Programs, Museums and Memorials," by James Richard Bennett, founder of Omni Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology (OMNI) & Professor Emeritus of English, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas (USA).

2006 - Peace & Friendship Bells, private peace garden of Prof. Dick Bennett, Fayetteville, Arkansas (USA). "The bells were created by ceramicist John Ward at Terra Studios in Durham, Arkansas, several miles southeast of Fayetteville. They exhibit the words Peace and Friendship. John made 10 bells to give as rewards to outstanding contributors to OMNI and these 3 to me." Photo by EWL 09Sep09.

2007 - Peace Rock Garden & Arboretum, Fayetteville, Arkansas (USA). Click here for set of photos from the "OMNI Peace Garden Tour 2007." OMNI is Omni Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology. Click here for a list of privately owned peace gardens on the 2008 tour. Web image shows home and garden of Prof. Bennett.

In 2001, Prof. James Richard (Dick) Bennett published a directory of peace organizations (org), colleges (col), museums (mus), journals (jour), libraries (lib), and memorials (mem) in North America, I subsequently contacted him, he invited me to speak in Fayetteville on November 8, 2005, and we have been in touch ever since. Dick is an avid proponent of small, personal peace monuments like peace poles and privately owned peace gardens. To practice what he preaches, Dick maintains several small peace monuments on his own property, three of which are illustrated above. Dick showed us around his private peace garden on the evening of September 9.

2001 - Holocaust & Intolerance Museum of New Mexico, 616 Central Avenue SW, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
(See New Mexico, 2001, Holocaust, Genocide, Museums.)

January 2001 - Holocaust & Intolerance Museum of New Mexico, 616 Central Avenue SW, Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA). "We are unique: Our purpose is to educate people about the Holocaust as well as to teach them about other genocides and forms of bullying that have affected people around the world. We are not limited to one religion, culture, geographic area, or time." Co-founded by Holocaust survivor Werner Gellert.

As we approached Albuquerque, Schera and I obtained tourist literature which, among many other things, informed us about the Holocaust & Intolerance Museum at 415 Central Avenue. We plotted the location near the very center of the city, and -- despite rush hour traffic -- Schera deposited me on foot at the calculated spot. It seemed an improbable neighborhood for a museum -- many bars, strippers waiting to get into Knockout's Gentlemen's Club, hikers with backpacks, panhandlers, and police cars. I searched two blocks North and East before thinking to ask one of the waiting policemen. He told me that the museum had moved three blocks West, which proved to be a tonier block with one or two art galleries. I got to the museum at 4:45, and a sign said that it had closed at 3:30. But the door was unlocked, and, through the glass door, I could see that a meeting was taking place among the museum exhibits. So I barged inside, interrupted the meeting, and requested a museum brochure. Michael Peck jumped up to help but could find only a brochure in Spanish. This appears to be a small but excellent "museum for peace," but I very much doubt if its director (Lyn Berner, 505-247-0606) has ever even heard of the International Network of Museums for Peace (INMP). It has nevertheless become the 79th museum on my list of "museums for peace" in the USA and Canada.

November 2002 - Patriots Peace Memorial, River Road, Louisville, Kentucky.
(See Kentucky, 2002, Peacekeeping, Buildings.)

November 2002 - Patriots Peace Memorial, River Road east of Zorn Avenue (next to Thurman-Hutchins Park), Louisville, Kentucky (USA). Designed by David A. Quillin, AIA. Complete inscription on interior plaque: "This memorial is dedicated to those United States military personnel who gave their lives in the line of duty at times other than those of declared hostile action [italics added]."

I'd read about this memorial on the World Wide Web but could not understand exactly what it represents. Now -- after seeing it -- it's still a bit of a mystery. The memorial is beautiful but very unusual. It consists of four square roofless walls illuminated from within. Each of the walls is constructed of unusually large white bricks and is open at the bottom to permit visitors to enter at any time from any direction and to climb a low interior pyramid (even in a wheelchair), thus obtaining a clearer view of names on glass bricks set into the white walls. An exterior plaque explains that the names represent "sons and daughters of our region who gave their lives during times of peace in the cause of freedom [italics added]... As a name is added, a brick is replaced with glass signifying our loss. This void becomes a point of light which will transform the memorial into a light-filled space each day and illuminate the name. As evening approaches the light radiating outward into the communithy will ever remaind us to celebrate the joy of freedom purchased by these brave men and women." According to the memorial website, 421 patriots have been enshrined so far. I assume that this figure would have to include service men and women killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other "hostile actions" which were not "declared" (at least not by Congress, as prescribed in Article 1, Section 8, of the US Constitution) are being memorialied here. But how about military personnel killed far from any "hostile action" but nevertheless " during times of peace"? The words "war" and "conflict" and "arms" and "veteran" are used no where around this memorial. The words "hostile action" and "peace" and "patriot" are used instead. Does "peace" mean "absense of declared hostile action," or is it being used in the sense of "rest in peace," or both? I assume that the unidentified creators of this memorial decided that deaths during undeclared "hostile actions" and/or during "times of peace" now occur so frequently that a special memorial is appropriate. This memorial therefore serves any need, just so long as its walls still have space for more glass bricks. This avoids the need to construct a new memorial after each "hostile action" (e.g. for Iraq after the Gulf after Vietnam after Korea etc.). I left the memorial still wondering who paid to build it and how "our region" is defined geographically. All in all, it is very effective and sobering, but the memorial makes no statement about the true nature and purposes of "hostile action" (war) and "peace." And it seems to accept unquestioningly the assumption -- as do most US war memorials -- that any American service man or woman who gives his or her life "in the line of duty" is a "patriot" and that their deaths are automaticlly "in the cause of freedom."

2007 - "Continuum" (Julie Penrose Fountain), America the Beautiful Park, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
(See Colorado, 2007, Fountains, Women.)

Summer 2007 - "Continuum" (Julie Penrose Fountain), America the Beautiful Park, Colorado Springs, Colorado (USA). "A sculptural fountain representing the life-giving movement of water between the atmosphere & the earth." "An open loop of silvery-colored steel panels outfitted with 366 water jets that line the interior contours of the form. It sits on a hidden turntable so that it's able to rotate every 15 minutes. The sculpture rises from a pool that has a complicated footprint to accommodate recirculation of the water." Designed by David Barber & Bill Burgess.

We visited this monument on our last visit to Colorado Springs. It's not exactly a peace monument but a monument to what Schera and I privately call a "peaceful scene." In this case, the preceful scene is a view of Pikes Peak from which Katherine Lee Bates [1859-1929] was inspired to compose my favorite patriotic anthem America the Beautiful. As a fountain in a cold and semi-arid climate, "Continuum" has some severe drawbacks. For one thing, it looks like the "toilet bowl building" in Fairfax, Virginia (see adjacent photo). For another thing, a column by Barry Noreen in the Colorado Springs Gazette said that the city has appropriated no funds for its operation and that a group of local volunteers is struggling to raise money so the fountain can be turned on durng the summer of 2010. A big part of the operating budget is the salary of an attendant whose duties include rescuing children who might drown in the fountain's reflecting pool. These are lessons for designers of monuments everywhere. Ram Uppuluri, the Indian-American who conceived the Interntional Friendship Bell in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, said that successful monuments (like his Japanese bell) should be safe, indestructable, and require minimum maintenance.

Future - Beacon of Peace & Hope, Arkansas Inland Marine Museum, North Little Rock, Arkansas.
(See Arkansas, Future, Towers, Flames.)

Future - Beacon of Peace & Hope, Arkansas Inland Marine Museum (AIMM), North Little Rock, Arkansas (USA). 36-foot beacon projecting two lights at night: One for peace & one for hope. A project of Women's Action for New Directions (WAND). A groundbreaking ceremony has already taken place, and construction started at the end of April 2009. Photo of foundation by EWL 09Sep09.

Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas, shows signs of improvement -- having in recent years obtained the William J.Clinton Presidential Center, the Clinton School of Public Service (University of Arkansas), and the headquarters of Heifer International (from North Manchester, Indiana). So the separately incorporated North Little Rock, which lies directly across the Arkansas River, has been trying to catch up, and one of the smaller city's efforts has been to improve its riverfront.by restoring a World War II submarine (named "USS Razorback" for Arkansas) which was towed back from Turkey to be enshrined in its namesake state. Whether on public land or on property controlled by the "Arkansas Inland Marine Museum, WAND -- a peace-minded Little Rock women's group -- has been working for several years to erect a 36-foot/11-meter "Beacon of Peace & Hope." I've been monitoring WAND's website for several years and read that construction started in April 2009. So I wanted to see for myself how far the project has progressed. Indeed, construction did in fact take place earlier this year, but all that shows so far is the top of the beacon's concrete foundation. An old-timer sitting on the bank of the Arkansas River pointed it out to us, commenting, "You wouldn't believe how much concrete they poured. Why that foundation goes down at least four feet!" There's no sign or anything else (at least not so far) to indicate the purpose of the foundation, and its site is not particularly attractive -- the width of a parking lot away from the submarine and an outdoor display of torpedos. And the foundation is almost up against a six-foot concrete flood wall which is decorated with amateurish drawings of an historic fort and of military "patriotism." The site has been swept clean, and further construction has apparently been postponed until next year (or perhaps until WAND raises more money).

N.B. By no means do the 14 sites and 28 peace monuments shown above represent all of the peace monuments on our route. Here are interactive links to an additional 34 peace monuments which we knowingly by-passed on this trip in order to visit the 14 selected sites, most of which we had not previously visited:

1830 - Community of Christ, Temple & World Headquarters, Independence, Missouri
1877 - "Peace and Vigilance," Old Post Office, N 8th St at Olive St, St. Louis, Missouri
1897 - Woman's Building, Tennessee Centennial Exposition (now Centennial Park), Nashville, Tennessee

c1913 - "Japanese Pagoda," Sunset Park, Ohio River, Evansville, Indiana
1918 - Ludlow Monument, Ludlow, Colorado
1927 - Peace Monument, Battlefield Drive & Granny White Pike, Nashville, Tennessee
1944 - Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, Lincoln City, Indiana

1957 - Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum, 500 West US Highway 24, Independence, Missouri
1963 - Bald Knob Cross of Peace, Bald Knob, Shawnee National Forest, Alto Pass, Illinois
1965 - Drop City, 4 miles (6 km) north of Trinidad, Colorado
1969 - Winston Churchill Memorial & Library in the United States, Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri
1970 - Peace Park, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri
1976 - "United Nations Visit to Nashville" (historical marker), Nashville, Tennessee
1976 - Four Freedoms Monument, Sunset Park, Ohio River, Evansville, Indiana

1980s - Alex Haley Home & Museum (plus historical marker & grave), 200 South Church Street, Henning, Tennessee
Date? - Statue of Diana (The Huntress) from Mexico, Union Depot (1889), Pueblo, Colorado
Date? - Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site, National Park Service (NPS), 15th & Monroe Streets, Topeka, Kansas
1990 - Breakthrough, Latshaw Plaza, adjacent to Winston Churchill Memorial, Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri
c1990 - Cordell Hull Birthplace & Museum State Park, 1300 Cordell Hull Memorial Drive, Byrdstown, Tennessee
1991 - Peace Monument, Harrison County Courthouse, Corydon, Indiana
Date? - World Wall for Peace (WWFP), Sevier Park Community Center, 12th Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee
1994 - Peace Door, Independence Temple, Community of Christ, World Plaza, Independence, Missouri
1995 - Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
1995 - Children's Peace Pavilion, in Community of Christ Auditorium building, 100 West Walnut, Independence, Missouri
1995 - Statue of Sadako Sasaki, United Nations Peace Plaza, Lexington Avenue & Walnut Street, Independence, Missouri
c1995 - Monument to Senator J. William Fulbright, Courthouse Square, Fayetteville, Arkansas
1996 - Mary Todd Lincoln House & Beula C. Nunn Garden, 578 West Main Street, Lexington, Kentucky
1998 - J. William Fulbright Peace Fountain, Old Main, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas

2002 - Swords Into Plowshares Peace Monument, World Plaza, Independence Temple, Community of Christ, Independence, Missouri
2002 - World Peace Monument, Great American Flea Market, Tulsa, Oklahoma
2003 - World Peace Prayer Fountain, Fayetteville Town Center, Fayetteville, Arkansas
2004 - World Peace Manhole Cover, Fayetteville Town Center, Fayetteville, Arkansas
2005 - World Peace Wetland Prairie, 1121 South Duncan Avenue, Fayetteville, Arkansas
2006 - Nashville Holocaust Memorial, Gordon Jewish Community Center, 801 Percy Warner Boulevard, Nashville, Tennessee