A look at some of the memorials and markers that tell stories of Waco

The United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, the sort of historical milestone that encourages a look back at that time, what has followed and what that tells the country about itself.

While Waco's modern municipal history only overlaps with 175 of those 250 years, most residents pass by pieces of Waco history in the form of memorials, markers and monuments on a regular basis without reflection. But attention to those pieces teaches something about the diverse, colorful and eclectic people and times that brought Waco's place in the nation to where it is today.

More than 360 state historical or antiquities markers, national register properties, cemeteries, courthouses and museums are listed for McLennan County in the Texas Historical Commission's Historic Sites Atlas. Beyond those well-catalogued sites, even more stone or concrete markers and memorials dot the city, intended to remind the generations following. Here are a few of those stone or concrete markers, some well-remembered, some often overlooked:

Waco Tornado Memorial, corner of Fourth Street and Austin Avenue

This black granite marker in the shape of a raindrop or teardrop acknowledges the 114 Waco residents killed in the May 11, 1953 tornado, the deadliest day in Waco history. The tornado, later estimated as an EF5 tornado in intensity and destructiveness, tore through downtown Waco in late afternoon as the business district was busy with shoppers, office workers ending their day and students out of school. Winds collapsed the R.T. Dennis Furniture Co. building, smashed shops, cafes and theaters, flipped cars and buried them in rubble.

The marker stands several hundred feet from the epicenter of the damage, roughly the 400 block of Austin Avenue, with the tornado's path starting near Lorena and ending in East Waco across the Brazos River. A wind-activated sculpture in the 400 block also commemorates those killed in the tornado.

143rd Regiment marker, next to North Interstate 35 access road, near Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum

Erected in 1989, this marker commemorates the soldiers who served in the Army's 143rd Infantry Regiment, 36th Division. Formed in World War I from Texas and Oklahoma National Guard troops, the division was reorganized as an all-Texas unit before World War II.

During World War II, the 143rd Regiment and its Waco soldiers saw combat in the Italian campaign against Italian, then German forces in 1943 and 1944 and was redeployed to France for the final stages of the war against Germany.

Before the Allied invasion of Western Europe on D-Day, June 6, 1944, the date most often commemorated in recent decades, the regiment had already been fighting more than a year, with bitter and bloody fighting at Salerno, Anzio, Monte Cassino and the Rapido River.

The marker displays the regimental shield and its motto "Arms Secure Peace" while the arrowhead with a T inside at the top of the marker represents the famous shoulder patch worn by the Texas Division.

Woodmen of the World marker, southwest corner of McLennan County courthouse grounds

Erected in 1949, a Woodmen of the World Regional Memorial, topped by the fraternal organization's trademark tree stump, contains the names of members representing 29 camps or lodges in Texas and one in New Mexico who died in service to their country during World War II, said James Garrett, a third-generation member and president of Waco Chapter 6.

The organization, formed in 1890 to provide funeral insurance and other financial services for its members, as well as organize community service, used the symbols of axes and a tree stump as metaphor for building blocks of community. It eventually changed its name to WoodmenLife, but is still active, including Waco Chapter 6.

An inscription at the marker's base reads "Dum tacet clamat," which, according to various online translators, means "While he is silent, he shouts" or "While silent, she cries" or "while he cries in silence."

On the opposite side of the courthouse grounds, a large chunk of limestone with a metal plaque, installed by the Henry Downs Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, identifies the courthouse site as where pioneer Neil McLennan, the county's namesake, once lived. Some local historians, however, believe his homestead was closer to a fork of the Bosque River.

Waco Shakespeare Club marker, University Parks Drive near the Cameron Park entrance

Tucked into the edge of woods off University Parks Drive and near an entrance to Cameron Park stands the Waco Shakespeare Club's memorial marker to the bard of Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare.

The marker was erected in 1916, the tricentennial of Shakespeare's death, by a women's literary club that Kate Harrison Friend and her mother, Arimenta, started 17 years earlier, according to a Texas Collection blog post by Geoff Hunt.

Friend was known for her Shakespearean scholarship. She traveled to Stratford-upon-Avon in 1900 and edited the turn-of-the-century Waco newspaper, Artesia.

Friend founded the Waco Humane Society among her many community accomplishments, and a Kate Friend Fountain outside Waco City Hall dates from 1909, bought by Friend from the National Humane Alliance. The fountain was designed for animal use, with horses drinking from the top bowl and dogs and other animals from ground-level bowls.

The Shakespeare monument, fittingly, offers a poem for its viewers: "Shakespeare, deign to lend thy face / This romantic nook to grace / Where untaught Nature sports alone / Since thou and Nature are but one."

Freedom Fountain, south entrance of the Waco Convention Center near the Waco Hilton

Visitors to the Waco Convention Center may have considered the Freedom Fountain, encircled by the word "freedom" in 54 languages, a general tribute to an American foundational value, but the fountain had its origins in the final years of the Vietnam War.

With negotiations between American and North Vietnamese delegates to end the war slowly grinding along, Texas businessman Ross Perot called for everyday people to pressure North Vietnamese officials for release or humane treatment of American prisoners of war in what was called Write Hanoi Campaign.

A Waco campaign drew more than 40,000 letters and petition signatures and in 1971 a delegation of 12 Wacoans led by the late Cullen Smith traveled to Paris to present the public support for POWs. The campaign and visit did not see immediate results, but two years later 591 American POWs were released to return home.

The Paris delegation wanted to memorialize the impetus behind their trip, and the idea for a fountain, what became the Freedom Fountain, was born. Financed largely by private and community donations, the fountain formally began flowing in May 1973.

Peace Officer Memorial, northwest corner of Indian Spring Park

The Peace Officer Memorial honors 30 area law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty between 1871 and 2021, their names engraved in three stone slabs facing a central obelisk.

The officers represent a range of city, county, state and federal departments, including the Waco, West and Mart police departments; the McLennan County Sheriff's Office and constable's offices; the Texas Department of Public Safety; the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; McLennan Community College; and even the long-defunct McLennan County Convict Farm. Area law enforcement agencies lead annual ceremonies at the memorial.

Across from the memorial a small fountain unassociated with the peace officer memorial remembers five Waco-area men who died in an aviation accident May 5, 1982. One plaque facing the fountain carries the men's names while a second one reads "They were husbands, fathers, sons, brothers and friends who lived, loved, and worked in this community. They were tragically killed in an aviation accident May 5, 1982, but love endures."

Vietnam Veterans Memorial, near the northeast corner of University Parks Drive and Washington Avenue

Walkers and joggers using the riverwalk section connecting Cameron Park and Indian Spring Park pass through or around the Vietnam Veterans Memorial near the corner of University Parks Drive and Washington Avenue.

The memorial pays tribute to the 83 McLennan County servicemembers who died in action during the roughly 10-year war and includes a grove of trees for reflection, a small pavilion and a Veterans Plaza area with five large bronze medallions representing the seals of the United States' five service branches at the time of the Vietnam War.

The late Manuel Sustaita, a Marine veteran of the war, spearheaded the project through years of planning, fundraising and construction.

Several blocks away on Washington Avenue, in the southwest corner of the McLennan County Records Building parking lot, a red granite Veterans Memorial marker with a single star stands to remember McLennan County's military veterans. The marker's inscription reads "Dedicated to the veterans of McLennan County, male and female, wartime or peacetime, living or dead, who have served their country."

Doris Miller Memorial, near University Parks Drive and Washington Avenue

One of the largest public memorials in Waco is not stone or concrete, but a sweeping steel representation of a ship's hull and a nine-foot bronze statue of Waco World War II naval hero Doris Miller. Located on the banks of the Brazos River by the Washington Avenue bridge, the memorial honors Miller, the first Black sailor to earn the Navy Cross for bravery.

During the Japanese aerial attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Miller, a mess attendant on the USS West Virginia, braved enemy fire on deck to pull his commanding officer to safety, then manned an antiaircraft gun against Japanese fighter planes.

Awarded the Navy Cross, the Navy's highest medal outside of the Medal of Honor, Miller traveled across the country as a recruiter, then returned to active duty on the escort carrier USS Liscome Bay. Miller died in action Nov. 24, 1943 when the carrier was torpedoed and sank.

Chisholm Trail markers, both ends of Waco Suspension Bridge

The bronze cattle and their three drivers that populate Indian Spring Park, created by Texas sculptor Robert Summers in his "Branding the Brazos" installation, evoke Waco's days as a key stop on the Chisholm Trail with cowboys and their herds passing through on their monthslong trek to rail connections in Kansas.

In addition to Summers' bronze cattle and the 1870 Waco Suspension Bridge standing as reminder of Waco's cattle days, the Texas Department of Transportation upgraded stone markers telling the trail's story at the bridge's endpoints and the McLennan County Courthouse grounds in 2018.

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