Project leader Cheryl Anderson talks with American Legion members about finishing touches to the Walcott Veterans Memorial on May 13, 2026. (Photo by W. Scott Olsen/For the North Dakota Monitor)
A small southeastern North Dakota town celebrated Memorial Day with the dedication of a brand-new $180,000 veterans monument located in Walcott. Money was raised through private donations, corporate sponsorships, and grants.
The new memorial, comprised of granite, reads the names of more than 300 veterans buried across ten regional cemeteries. The ceremony was emotional, as long-passed family members were displayed on a memorial that will last for many years to come.
The ceremony included the posthumous presentation of the Congressional Gold Medal to the family of WWII veteran Orin “Bud” Nelson for his elite service in Burma. Thorvald “Toby” Rockstad spent 17 months as a prisoner of war in Germany during WWII, and will continue to be honored with his family’s dedication of a granite bench at the memorial. Rockstad’s family notes that though veterans typically are quite secretive about what they went through, veterans deserve to be honored, and their sacrifices should be recognized.
Read the North Dakota Monitor’s full reporting here. (Original article by Erin Hemme Froslie)
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