Giant Stone Stick for the Forgotten Few

The Camp Merritt Memorial Monument is a reminder for the soldiers, commanders, nurses, and civilians who met their end at Camp Merritt during World War I. Specifically, it honors 578 individuals – 15 commanders, 573 enlisted men, 4 nurses, and 1 civilian – who left this world at Camp Merritt due to the war. This monument stands tall in the middle of a traffic circle on the border of Cresskill and Dumont, Bergen County, New Jersey. The county bought it in 1919.

The monument is a 66-foot tall obelisk crafted from Stony Creek granite by the Harrison Granite Company. It bears a World War I soldier sculpture by Robert Ingersoll Aitken, complemented by an eagle above it, and a brass plaque designed by Katherine Lamb Tait showcasing the Palisades. Below the design on the monument's south side, an inscription reads, 'This stone marker marks the center of the camp and faces the highway through which over a million American soldiers traveled to and from World War, 1917-1919.'

The monument was dedicated on Memorial Day, May 30, 1924, with an estimated 20,000-person crowd. General John 'Black Jack' Pershing delivered the dedicatory address.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons