Rochester, MN, has a lot to offer visitors. Two popular and meaningful sites we’re particularly proud of are the Soldiers Field Veterans Memorial and Mayowood Mansion. We invite you to enjoy them as much as we do.
Soldiers Field Veterans Memorial
The Soldiers Field Veterans Memorial at Soldiers Field Memorial Park honors the lives and the sacrifices of veterans from southeastern Minnesota — past, present, and future.
The focal point of the memorial is the 12-by-50-foot Wall of Remembrance, a circular granite wall that honors more than 3,000 members of the military from southeastern Minnesota who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country, from the U.S. Civil War to present day.
The Wall of Remembrance is joined by the Walk of Remembrance, which features more than 6,000 pavers honoring veterans and allies, and the Trees of Remembrance, 50 sponsored maple trees representing every state in the USA. Each maple has a tree paver at its base with the name of either an honored veteran or the donor of the tree.
Six flags fly behind the monument to represent the Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Merchant Marines, and Navy. Four benches represent the four tragic flights of Sept. 11, 2001, and a black bench honors and remembers prisoners of war and those missing in action.
The memorial is flanked by two cannons: one from World War I supplied by the American Legion and the other an Iraqi anti-aircraft canon supplied by the local Army unit. The exterior walls of the memorial provide visual history with graphics from the Civil War to the Gulf War, including engravings depicting the bombing of Pearl Harbor and medics putting soldiers onto a helicopter during the Vietnam War. You’ll see a statue of a medic and a nurse treating a wounded soldier and another heart-wrenching statue of a widow and child being notified of the death of their loved one.
The memorial park is at 300 Seventh St. SW. It’s open to the public daily until 10 p.m. and is illuminated after dark.
Mayowood Mansion
Mayowood was once the 3,300-acre estate of Mayo Clinic co-founder Dr. Charles H. Mayo and his wife, Edith. The property is highlighted by the 38-room Mayowood Mansion, which was completed in 1911. Their son, Dr. Charles W. Mayo and his wife, Alice, lived in the home until their deaths in the late 1960s. The stately mansion was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.
The estate, located at 3720 Maywood Road SW, is now owned by Mayo Clinic. The History Center of Olmstead County gives public tours of the home, showing a wide variety of art pieces as well as furniture from France, Spain, Germany, and the United States. You can walk through the gardens after the tour. Public guided tours are held Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays from early spring to late October. Group tours of up to 45 people can be accommodated. Christmas tours are also featured.
If you only have time to visit a couple of Rochester’s public attractions, make it these two. We’re sure you’ll find the experiences moving and educational.
Image by Michael Hicks is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0
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