Heroes Plaza - El Reno, Oklahoma
N 35° 31.997 W 097° 57.170
14S E 594933 N 3932688
Although there are a few bricks in the pavement, the bulk of this memorial's bricks are in a wall and on some of the individual memorials.
Waymark Code: WMEPMN
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 06/23/2012
Views: 4
Heroes Plaza is moving and inspiring; it represents the best of small-town America. The plaza is located at the northwest corner of N. Rock Island Ave. and E. Woodson. It was dedicated on July 4, 2000. The plaza portion has a brick wall containing most of the engraved bricks. They are dedicated to veterans, other individuals, organizations, companies, etc. The estimate of the number of bricks is very rough, based on the number located in a typical section. Each section of the wall has an alphanumerical index at the top, so a listing of individual brick's locations must exist somewhere. In addition to the wall, the most current individual monuments; e.g., Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. are also made up of bricks. It should be noted that none of the bricks bear the names of those killed in action; those names are listed on the individual monuments.
Within the plaza are individual monuments dedicated to the various wars in which America has fought during the 20th and 21st Centuries. On each are the names of those from Canadian County who died in action. The back of the wall is covered by a magnificent mural depicting a military funeral at Arlington National Cemetery.
The plaza was a group effort, apparently spearheaded by the City of El Reno, the El Reno Chamber of Commerce, Canadian County, and all of the El Reno veterans' groups (American Legion, DAV, etc.). The plaza was designed by Charlie Beecham, an El Reno resident and himself an Air Force veteran. He also designed the Jesse Reno statue (waymark WMEMY5) and the Historic El Reno mural (waymark WM5BKT).
Setting of your bricks:: War Memorial
Name of Display: Heroes Plaza
Approximate number of bricks in display: 2000
Name on One Brick: Joe Stanley, US Navy, Vietnam
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Visit Instructions:
Please choose a name and provide a close-up of it. Maybe it's one of your relatives or someone with the same name or just the closest one you see. Your choice.