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Hundreds of trees planted to honor war veterans along Minnesota Highway 22 in southern Minnesota are gone after a major rebuild of the road, and two new permanent memorials are now standing in their stead.

The stone, park-like memorials, in Mapleton and Mankato, were dedicated Monday on each end of a 15-mile stretch of road officially designated as Victory Drive Memorial Corridor.

“The Victory Drive corridor started as an honor for WWI and WWII veterans,” said Peter Muehlbach, project manager with WSB Engineering, the company that designed the rebuild.

“But we were looking to take this to the next level and just honor every service member for all five service areas.”

The new memorials that bookend the highway featured five stone pillars, depictions of service members and flags.

The $20 million rebuild took three years of construction to complete. Minnesota Department of Transportation project manager Robert Jones said his agency and WSB knew that the 

trees lining the road dated back for more than 50 years

, and held a special meaning for the area.

trees were dying, and many were in the “clear zone,”

 a buffer along the highway that was intended to be clear of obstacles for cars that might leave the pavement.

Jones said like the original memorial, the landscaping along the improved road was intended to reflect the service of area citizens who served in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard.

A roundabout added at one intersection has its own symbolism, said Jones, an Air Force veteran.

"In the roundabout, there's five plants and it makes a five point star, and that's for the five different branches of the service,” Jones said. “And then along all the intersections going down through the corridor, there's five different trees with bushes and plants along each intersection that represents all five branches of the service."

The stone memorials have been turned over to the cities of Mapleton and Mankato for long-term maintenance and preservation.

Minnesota News

Transportation

Tim Nelson

Author

Hundreds of trees planted to honor war veterans along Minnesota Highway 22 in southern Minnesota are gone after a major rebuild of the road. In their place stand two permanent memorials to area citizens who’ve served in the military.

A row of flags attached to monuments on a sunny day.

With new memorials, MnDOT rededicates MN 22 to veterans

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