Memorial Day

Near the town site of Maryhill, Washington, three miles east of Maryhill Museum of Art, stands a replica of Stonehenge built by Samuel Hill. Dedicated in 1918 to the servicemen of Klickitat County, Washington who died in the service of their country during the Great War, Hill's Stonehenge Memorial stands as a monument to heroism and peace.

Samuel Hill was the son of Quaker parents and in 1907 acquired 7,000 acres in southwest Washington and planned to turn it into a Quaker farming community. The farming enterprise never materialized and his dream eventually gave way to a cattle ranch. His chateau-style "farm house" was turned into Maryhill Museum of Art in 1917.

During World War I, Hill delivered releif supplies to Belgium and Russia, and reinforced his interest in travel. While in England, he made his first trip to see Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain where he was told that the structure was believed to be constructed by Druids as a place of human sacrifice.

Hill concluded there was a similarity between the loss of life in this, the greatest of human wars, and the sacrifices of ancient Stonehenge and planned to build a replica of it on the cliffs of the Columbia as a reminder of those sacrifices and the "incredible folly" of the war.

via maryhillmuseum.org

Posted by Bluesun2600