On Veterans Day, we decided to check out Washington Park’s Oregon Vietnam Veterans Living Memorial. Located between the Zoo and the Arboretum Visitor’s Center, we’ve passed it many times but, until yesterday, never took the time to stop.

Erected in the Hoyt Arboretum section of the park, in 1987, the Memorial covers 8 acres designed in an upward spiral path.

Starting at the base of the “bowl”, the Garden of Solace has this message etched in marble, “So long as we are not forgotten we do not die. And thus this garden is a place of life.”

The path winds across a foot bridge leading to six alcoves, each with a curved wall displaying the names of those lost during segmented years of the war.

The narrative, on these walls, includes not only facts about the war, during the time period, but also ordinary events which happened, in Portland, at the same time.

Etched into the first panel, dated 1959, “While the war raged in Vietnam, day-to-day life in Oregon continued. Recorded on these panels is a random selection of happenings…momentous and trivial, comic and tragic…which took place in the towns and countryside from which the men named here had come and would not see again.”

As you stroll from one panel to the next, the number of deceased gets markedly larger, as the touching stories become even more poignant. The last panel lists those still missing.

The Memorial marks a beautiful setting among the colors of Fall, and we were lucky to see it on a sunny day. Washington Park never ceases to amaze us with its offerings, don’t know why it took so long to discover this special place.