A veterans memorial with artistic metal flare, community collaboration

The Butterfield Veterans Memorial in Butterfield, Minn., is the product of a communitywide effort—from fundraising to fabrication—to honor local military veterans. Images provided

Many hands make light work.

The citizens of Butterfield, Minn., took that phrase to heart when they set out to honor local military veterans with a memorial. After a communitywide effort that included everything from fundraising to fabrication, a gleaming and striking veterans memorial monument now resides at the Butterfield City Park.

Located in the southwest corner of the state, Butterfield is home to roughly 550 people, including many who have served in the armed forces. The town had a VFW post but no dedicated veterans memorial. That all changed in April 2018 when community members formed a committee to spearhead the project.

It reached out to Jeremy Hall, local welder, fabricator, artist, and weld instructor at Ridgewater College, Willmar, Minn., to design and fabricate the memorial. Being that it’s a small town, Hall was familiar with the effort and gladly accepted the offer to design and fabricate the monument with his three brothers, Andy, Tony, and Mike, at his home shop.

A Local Effort From Start to Finish

After roughly two years of fundraising efforts that included pancake brunches, partnerships with local retail stores, pork chop suppers, free-will donations, and even auctions, the committee had raised enough money to get the project rolling.

The design was meant to stand out from other veterans memorials throughout the country. Instead of a monument constructed of dark granite, a common material in many veterans and war memorials, Hall said they wanted to use metal. That choice went along with another objective, which was to rely on local talent to design and build the monument.

“We chose to use stainless steel instead of granite because we felt like that gave us the best chance to keep as much of the work local as possible. That was something we felt was important.”

The monument itself is a 3D cutout of Minnesota fabricated out of 12-ga. stainless steel. It is 12 ft. tall, 10 ft. wide, and 2 ft. deep with a 100-ft.-long TIG-welded fillet joint around its perimeter. It has six red-coated stainless strips of varying sizes attached across the front, simulating the red stripes of the American flag. To the left are custom-cut and -welded metal stars surrounded by an electric blue background, simulating the flag’s stars. Two companies in nearby Mountain Lake, Minn., helped the American flag take shape. NH Metals laser-cut the stars and the strips of stainless steel, while LB Customs painted the flag blue and red.

Hall then installed LED lighting underneath the strips, which are slightly raised from the surface. The phrases “Honoring all who served” and “All gave some, some gave all” are laser-cut spanning two strips. At night the LED lights provide backlighting on the raised strips, allowing viewers to see the stars, stripes, and phrases.

The monument is flanked by stainless custom flowerpots with cutouts of saluting servicemen; benches; and stainless steel posts meant for hanging plaques with the names, service dates, and military branch of local veterans. Powder Werks of Lake Crystal, Minn., a 30-min. drive from Butterfield, provided powder coating for the bench frames, name plaque columns, and custom-designed flowerpots.

“The project went very smoothly, which is always what you want but doesn’t always happen. We were fortunate that nothing odd or unforeseen popped up during fabrication,” Hall said.

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