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.

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