Kenyon Minnesota · est. 1856
The memorial arch at Kenyon Veterans Memorial Park at sunrise, an eagle on each pillar and the service flags flying

Kenyon, Minnesota

Veterans Memorial Park

All Gave Some, Some Gave All

Four walls of plaques stand at the corner of County Road 12 and Highway 56, where the Boulevard of Roses ends and the Memorial Day parade finishes. The memorial was dedicated on July 15, 2017. The entrance sign, donated by the Kenyon Veterans Color Guard, is dated 2009.

244plaques on four walls

What stands there

  • Four memorial walls244 plaques

    The walls carry Kenyon's veterans from the Civil War to the present. Among them are George R. Terry of the Grand Army of the Republic and Lester Monson, lost aboard the USS Arizona.

  • The archAll Gave Some, Some Gave All

    A wrought-iron arch carries the words over the entrance, an eagle on each pillar.

  • A 75 mm howitzerrepainted 2015 and 2016

    An original field gun, repainted by Craig Jacobson and Peterson Ford.

  • The Freedom TreeCaptain Benjamin Danielson

    A tree and plaque for the Kenyon pilot shot down over Laos in December 1969.

  • The colorsadded 2011

    The POW/MIA flag, the state flag and a flag for each of the six services.

  • Jacob Wetterling memorial

    A memorial to the missing boy whose disappearance changed Minnesota.

The Kenyon Veterans Memorial Park sign, dedicated to all veterans, carrying the seals of the six services
The park sign carries the seals of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine, and the line “Donated By Kenyon Veterans Color Guard.”

The year at the park

  1. Last Monday in May

    Memorial Day

    The parade steps off at 10:30 a.m. from the Speedway on Second Street to Kenyon Cemetery, with the K-W band and choir, a speaker and Taps. The council approves the route each May. Paul Senjem is chairman and emcee.

  2. Rose Fest weekend, August

    Field of Flags

    The Color Guard fills the park with flags, each one reserved in a veteran's name for a $20 donation. Placement begins 5 p.m. Thursday; the flags stand Friday through Sunday, and the closing ceremony follows the parade. The 2017 listing ran to some two hundred names.

  3. November 11

    Veterans Day

    The morning program is in the K-W middle and high school gym at 400 6th Street: Kenyon and Wanamingo honor guards, each branch flag carried in to its own song, the POW/MIA table, the choir, flag folding and Taps.

Who keeps it

  • Kenyon Veterans Color Guard

    Mike "Mac" McDonald, president · 507-789-5461

    A 501(c)(3) since 2014. It posts the colors, places flags on more than 600 veterans' graves in 17 cemeteries between Kenyon and Nerstrand before Memorial Day, runs the parade and cemetery program, and stages the Field of Flags.

  • Field of Flags reservations

    Paul Senjem · 507-254-8302

    Reserve a flag in a veteran's name for a $20 donation, or at the park Thursday through Saturday mornings of Rose Fest week.

  • VFW Conrad Osthum Post 141

    601 2nd Street

    On Second Street since 1919. The American Legion's Joseph A. Gates Post 78 meets there as well.

In the council record

The park reaches the council 8 times across 5 meetings: the parade route each May, and in April 2021 Resolution 2021-07, which backed Post 141's application to the Department of Defense for a retired piece of military equipment as a static display. Four trees were planted in 2022.

5 meetings mention it, 8 times in all; the most recent 5 below; each date opens the packet or minutes scrolled to that exact mention.

  • May 14, 2024 agendainformation from the Kenyon Color Guard:
  • May 9, 2023 packetinformation from the Kenyon Color Guard:
  • June 14, 2022 packet60 right-of-way near the Kenyon Veterans Park
  • May 10, 2022 minutes60 right-of-way near the Kenyon Veterans Park
  • April 13, 2021 minutesVFW Post #141 Static Military Equipment Display Application

Questions

Where is Kenyon Veterans Memorial Park?

At the corner of County Road 12 and Highway 56 in Kenyon, Minnesota, at the east end of the Boulevard of Roses.

How many names are on the memorial walls?

Four walls carry 244 plaques, from a Grand Army of the Republic veteran to a sailor lost on the USS Arizona.

When was the park dedicated?

The memorial was dedicated July 15, 2017, with Commander Brian M. Danielson as keynote speaker and Paul Senjem as moderator. The entrance sign is dated 2009 and was donated by the Kenyon Veterans Color Guard.

How do I reserve a flag for the Field of Flags?

Call Mac McDonald at 507-789-5461 or Paul Senjem at 507-254-8302. A flag is a $20 donation and is flown in a veteran's name over Rose Fest weekend.

Sources: the Kenyon Leader's dedication coverage of July 3 and July 17, 2017; Kenyon city council minutes, April 13, 2021; the 2026 Rose Fest schedule; and the Color Guard's own listings. Photographs by visitors to the park. If a name is missing from these walls or a detail here is wrong, the Color Guard is the place to say so.