On Monuments...

Well, it has to be more than just a silly ol' plaque- I know, let's put it inside this giant sized rock, and then, and then, put a statue right on top of it and, and a flagpole... on either side!!!

Upon first visiting Golden Gate Park back in 1989, I happened upon this rather curious, if not outright comical conglomeration of a monument right off the park's main drag located in this small, secluded, sunken meadow. For all it's tranquil, idyllic loveliness however, no one ever seems to venture into it. Of course, I had to have a look see, was humbly taken with the site and its forever young and noble resident, but could not get a decent angle to take a photo that I thought paid it justice. I've tried several times since in the intervening years, but always came up short, and pretty much resigned myself to the fact that it would forever remain one of those things that just had to be experienced, period. Fortunately, that all changed this past holiday weekend when we had a break in some desperately needed rain that finally quashed CA's biggest fire in history and scrubbed San Francsico's air clean, and the light really played to its favor (which Blogger software rather successfully flattens and obliterates).

A short walk away from that most curious of landmarks lies one that is... stranger still- an irregularly shaped monolith with hundreds of names carved into it dating back to WWI. This bizarrely shaped monument is also just off the main drag, but totally hidden in a forbiddingly dark thicket of trees. To this day I don't remember how I first came upon it. I've also been trying to get a decent shot of this most formidable "blob," and well, this too is perhaps the best I'll ever get. 

The latter was obviously a tribute to the area's fallen from WWI, but I purposely let the former doughboy monument (which looks like some kind of idealized elder boy scout) remain shrouded in mystery. Now that I've officially documented them, I did a little research- including brushing up on a very forgotten unknown piece of history post WWI.

Photos: © Stan Banos