Wellstone’s way

09/25/2005

Jean Hopfensperger,
Star Tribune
September 26, 2005

The Wellstone Memorial and Historic Site opened to the public Sunday, drawing an appreciative crowd of supporters—and the late senator’s famous green bus, of course—to a remote, wooded area near Eveleth where the plane carrying the senator and seven others crashed in October 2002.

For most of the crowd Sunday, it was their first glimpse of the area where Sen. Paul Wellstone; his wife, Sheila; their daughter, Marcia Markuson; three campaign staffers, and two pilots died. They read the markers and walked the grounds with a mix of sadness and smiles.

“I didn’t know how I’d react when I saw this,” Mark Wellstone, the younger of the Wellstones’ two sons, told a crowd of several hundred people. “But it turned out really, really nice. And it felt really good to see all the [familiar] faces today.”

Judy McLaughlin, whose son William was one of three Wellstone aides who died in the crash, also acknowledged the mixed emotions. “I couldn’t come up here before because I couldn’t face it,” she said. “Now I have, and I’m at peace with what’s here. It’s filled with joy and beauty. It’s a fitting tribute to all the people [who died].”

Like Wellstone, the memorial is far from traditional.

The first thing visitors see is a roadside marker and a shiny green boulder engraved with a poem and a drawing of an eagle.

From there, visitors can follow a wooded path, or “legacy trail,” that passes by a half-dozen markers that describe Wellstone’s career in words and photographs. It begins with the curly-haired, flannel-shirted Wellstone—the community organizer—and ends with the senator dressed in a suit and tie in Washington, D.C. There’s also a marker for Sheila Wellstone, her husband’s constant companion and trusted adviser, and tireless advocate for battered women.

Another short trail leads to an overlook point near the site of the crash, a marshy area with scattered pine trees.

A series of sculpted rocks lie in a “commemorative circle.” There is one for Paul and Sheila, one for their daughter, Marcia, and others for campaign aides Tom Lapic, Mary McEvoy and William McLaughlin.

Sculptor Phil Rickey said all the rocks were remnants from the old Cleveland Cliffs mines in Hoyt Lakes, and were more than 1 billion years old.

The walking paths are made from taconite tailings, “drilled and blasted from the Earth by those who Paul fought for every day of his life,” Dave Foster, director of the United Steelworkers of America, told the crowd.

Wellstone considered the Iron Range his second home, so it’s an appropriate place for his memorial , said Lisa Radosevich Pattni. In fact, Wellstone began his first bid for the U.S. Senate from the Iron Range, said Pattni, who worked in Wellstone’s Iron Range office for seven yeas.

Before the speeches, some visitors took photos. Some touched the smooth sculpted stone markers. Some brought children—and even a few pets.

“I like that it [the memorial] isn’t in some big city, but it’s in the woods, here on the Iron Range,” said 16-year-old Dylan Anderson of Esko.

His parents, Lisa and Larry Anderson, said they wanted to make sure their son knew about a man who was a role model to them. Said Lisa: “I think Minnesota has been blessed by all that Paul did for it.”

How it came about

After the Wellstones’ deaths, many people on the Iron Range wanted to do something to commemorate Wellstone, said Keith Nelson , St. Louis County commissioner. They just didn’t know what.

When a parcel of land adjacent to the crash site was tax forfeited, the idea took shape. The county commissioners voted unanimously to devote the land to a historical marker for Wellstone. The site, which had large portions of wetlands, held no potential for development, he said. The historical marker idea then “evolved into something much more meaningful,” he said.

Wellstone Action!, the St. Paul -based group that is carrying on Wellstone’s political work, took a lead in organizing the project and fundraising. Steelworkers unions across the country raised about half of the $250,000 raised to date, said Foster. The design team was led by Bill Sanders, of Sanders, Wacker, Bergly Inc., a landscape architecture firm based in St. Paul.

“I hope this is a place where school children can come and learn,” said McLaughlin, “and where people can come and see that they can make a difference.”