Dead Hydroplane Racers Memorial honors Warner F. Gardner and Fellow Drives who lost their lives in Hydroplane accidents. Warner Gardner was a veteran from WWII and served in the United States Air Force and retired as a Lt. Colonel.
"In 1963, Gardner saved the life of a fellow hydroplaner during the Diamond Cup races on Lake Coeur d'Alene. Gardner would later die in a hydroplane accident on the Detroit River in 1968."
Source:
Mark Hits The Road
During 1958 to 1968, hydroplane racing was an annual event in Coeur d'Alene, with over a 100,000 spectators attending the events, it was finally banned in 1967 with the final race in 1968.
The memorial shows a stylized hydroplane swooping upwards from a military jet and is mounted on a natural stone base about 4 feet in height. There is a nice flowerbed surrounding the memorial.
Warner F. Gardner was born on July 25, 1915 and passed away on September 9, 1968, he was 53 years of age. He is interred at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C.
In Memory of
Warner F. Gardner
Lt. Col., U.S.A.F. (Ret.)
And
Fellow Drivers
Who
Devoted So Much
To Hydroplane Racing