Vandals Damage Civil War Headstone in Colorado
Last Saturday, vandals tipped over numerous headstones in Longmont, Colorado’s Mountain View Cemetery, including a granite Civil War memorial statue. Tracey George, who manages the cemetery, said that she thought at least two vandals were involved, since they left shoe marks on the 106-year-old monument in order to knock it over. In the process, the soldier was toppled over and decapitated. The head disappeared until today when it was discovered outside Longmont’s Fire Station #1.
Vandals began wreaking havoc in the cemetery over the Fourth of July weekend, and have escalated from there. So far, 106 headstones have been damaged or destroyed.
According to the Boulder Daily Camera, the Civil War monument was donated to the cemetery in 1907 by the Women’s Relief Corps. It was the tallest and most expensive item vandalized in the Saturday night attack. The statue’s base is engraved with the words, “In memory of our honored dead.” The statue was pulled from its base. The statue’s fall broke the base, both legs of the soldier above the ankle and the rifle that also attached the figure to the base. Its head, which broke off at the neck, was dug out of the impression it left in the ground and went missing. George estimated that the granite head with its hat would have weighed well over 100 pounds.
“Everything here is hand carved and to find anybody who does that kind of trade anymore is going to be hard,” George told 7NEWS. “We figure it’s going to be somewhere between $20,000 to $50,000 just to replace this statue. I think that is the thing that makes me the sickest,” she said of the damaged statue, which served as a focal point for annual Memorial Day remembrances.
If you can help, please call the Longmont Police Department at 303-651-8501 or Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.
Or visit: nococrimestoppers.com
