Kill Kare State Park - St. Albans, Vermont
Posted by: Vermontish
N 44° 46.715 W 073° 11.033
18T E 643688 N 4959958
Placed by alumni of a former boys' camp to remember lost friends
Waymark Code: WM6KAE
Location: Vermont, United States
Date Posted: 06/14/2009
Views: 6
I have never seen a multi-tasking monument before.
From a distance, this appears to be nothing more than a fancy, sturdy four-sided stone charcoal grill with a central chimney in a large expanse of lakeside lawn.
Up close, we see two plaques. On the north face:
In memory of
the boys who
gave their lives
in World War II
Kamp Kill Kare Alumni
On the south face, seven names.
Park staff could not tell me anything about the structure. While the history of the place provides some clues, more information came from the still-active Kamp Kill Kare Alumni Association.
Opened as a resort hotel in the 1870s, the property became a boys' camp in 1912. The alumni group placed the memorial in 1946, "the boys" being fellow alumni of the camp. The camp closed in 1966.
Knowing the backstory, to my mind the form of the memorial makes perfect sense as a reflection of an activity in which the boys would have participated and the associated good memories.
Park website.