In Somonauk, a tribute to soldiers, navigation
By KATE SCHOTT – kschott@daily-chronicle.com
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| Tom Warren stands by one of the many informational signs in his park, Finding Heros, in Somonauk, Ill., on Friday. (Beck Diefenbach - bdiefenbach@daily-chronicle.com) |
SOMONAUK – The Finding Heroes Park has been a labor of love for Tom Warren.
Warren, 73 and a retired farmer, bought 32 acres of land in 1981 at what was then the corner of the village with the idea of giving it to the community for a park. But a year or two later, the village built a park elsewhere, and Warren eventually sold much of the land to developers.
The Somonauk resident saved two acres, though, to build the park, which quietly opened last fall on Warren Drive, just off Dorothy Drive, in the northwestern part of the village.
"This has no government funding," he said Friday while at the park. "It was a gift to the village."
The name of the park, Finding Heroes, reflects the two themes Warren hopes visitors pick up on. The "Finding" aspect of the park is intended to provide a lesson in navigation, while the "Heroes" portion pays homage to Americans who lost their lives in overseas battles by providing information on the memorials affiliated with the American Battle Monuments Commission.
The commission – an agency of the executive branch of the federal government that was established by Congress in 1923 – is the guardian of overseas commemorative cemeteries and memorials that honor the service and sacrifice of American’s overseas, according to the commission's Web site.
Warren figures that many people will not be able to visit all of the memorials of the commission. But he can at least provide a little bit of information about them, he said, through the many informational signs in the park, which are fasted to podiums and provide photographs and facts about each memorial or geographic marker.
The memorial also has a flagpole, which marks the location of Somonauk on a world map. Radiating outward are scaled pathways leading to the rest of the world, he said, and locations such as the North and South pole are marked with engraved stones on various points of the walkway.
Warren is unsure the amount of money he has spent on the project, saying the land alone is probably worth $250,000 but that he hasn’t added up his expenses for the rest of it.
"It’s not important to me," Warren said, who was in the ROTC and National Guard from 1954-1962, but said he never fought in combat.
What is important to him is that people visit the park, and learn.
"They do come," he said. "The older people, those well past retirement age, are the ones that appreciate it the most."
While younger visitors only appear to be "mildly interested" in the memorial, Warren said he hopes to someday partner with an educator to create teaching guides about the topics discussed in the signs in the park. He would love to someday see yellow school buses pulling up to the park and students learning about the history of aviation and past conflicts the county has been involved in.
For him, it’s about having a place where others can educate themselves about the past, where they can find "a lesson, if you want to study it."
