Spirit of the American Doughboy (WWI)

Vernal has one too. This is another casting of E. M. Viquesney's "Spirit of the American Doughboy" — the same World War I infantryman, grenade raised, that stands in Mount Pleasant and roughly 150 other American towns. Part of Vernal's cluster of veterans memorials, it's a small instance of a national phenomenon: the moment, in the 1920s, when a sculptor figured out how to mass-produce remembrance cheaply enough that even a remote Uinta Basin town could afford a proper war memorial. The doughboy came flat-packed, in a sense, and towns made him their own.

What the plaque says

This tablet is dedicated to those who made the supreme sacrifice for their country in the World War Raymond Bates Herbert Burns Alton Calder Clive Couple Fred Demming Alfred Hall Amos Hoeft Seth McConkie Ralph Perry George Peters Leroy Shaffer Alden Witbeck Evan Witbeck This monument was erected by popular subscription of the citizens and school children of Uintah County November 11 1924

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Vernal — steps away
  The self-proclaimed Dinosaur Capital of Utah
• Utah Field House of Natural History — steps away
  A dinosaur museum with life-size replicas in an outdoor garden
• Steinaker State Park — 4.2 mi
  A warm-water reservoir popular for swimming in the desert heat
• McConkie Ranch Petroglyphs — 6.5 mi
  Massive Fremont-era rock art panels on private ranch land open to visitors

More markers nearby

• American Mother Veterans War Memorial — steps away
• Men of Courage Monument (WWII) — steps away
• Operation Desert Storm Memorial — steps away
• Vietnam War Memorial — steps away