A quiet transformation is taking place behind the powder blue Veterans of Foreign Wars post along Montana 35 in Bigfork. What began as an effort to relocate a secluded monument has grown into a comprehensive, community-backed initiative to establish four dedicated memorials for military veterans and emergency personnel, creating a permanent sanctuary for reflection and communal healing.
The project site on the gently sloping, shaded hillside behind the VFW post is designed to offer service members, first responders, and local citizens a public space to honor sacrifice. Multiple monuments are being integrated into the landscape, turning the once-empty grounds into an accessible regional landmark.
Among the completed installations is a tribute dedicated to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City. The memorial features twin stone pillars standing as physical representations of the World Trade Center towers that were brought down during the tragedy.
At the heart of the entire development stands the Benghazi Memorial, the centerpiece that initially inspired the broader expansion. First erected in 2014, the monument commemorates the four Americans who lost their lives during the assault on the United States diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012.
The sculpture showcases a bronze eagle with a six-foot wingspan depicted swooping down from the sky, securely mounted atop a large rock pedestal. It is recognized as the only dedicated memorial honoring the Benghazi victims anywhere in the United States.
The monument's presence in northwest Montana originated through the efforts of Bill Thomas, a firefighter and paramedic based in Ventura County, California. Thomas felt moved to act after reading an article in the local Bigfork Eagle reporting that the parents of Tyrone Woods—a retired Navy SEAL and CIA operative killed during the Benghazi assault—had relocated to the Bigfork community.
Despite having no prior personal relationship with the Woods family, Thomas decided to construct a lasting tribute. He partnered with local resident Doug Averill, who agreed to host the completed bronze eagle monument on his private elk preserve. In subsequent years, Thomas organized annual remembrance ceremonies honoring both the 2001 and 2012 tragedies through his nonprofit organization, the 9/11 Honor and Serve Foundation.
However, the memorial ceremony held in 2025 drew a very small crowd. Among the few attendees was Ron Wenzel, who had served as a New Jersey police officer during the 2001 attacks, losing close friends in the catastrophe before eventually joining the armed services and deploying to Afghanistan in 2011.
Troubled by the sparse turnout, Wenzel questioned whether the public had begun to disregard the promises made to never forget those fallen heroes. Upon further reflection, he concluded that the lack of public participation was not caused by apathy, but by the memorial's physical isolation behind locked gates on private property where regular visitors could not view it.
Wenzel, who serves as the quartermaster for the Bigfork VFW, approached Thomas with a proposal to move the bronze sculpture directly to the post grounds. Placing the monument at the VFW would guarantee unrestricted public access, allowing visitors to pay their respects at any time.
Thomas welcomed the concept, and Wenzel successfully presented the proposal to the VFW board for formal approval. Soon after, Thomas and Averill visited the property to survey the terrain, where Averill sketched out the initial design for the multi-monument site onto a paper napkin.
Turning that napkin sketch into reality required substantial financial and logistical assistance, which arrived through local resident Skylar Johnson, owner of Markay Johnson Construction. As a former U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, Johnson contributed crucial funding and construction resources, providing backing that Wenzel noted the VFW could not have raised on its own.
As construction commenced, the scope of the project widened after area veterans expressed their own needs during a monthly VFW gathering. A contingent of Vietnam War veterans addressed the group with deep emotion, explaining that traveling to Washington, D.C., to visit national monuments was financially prohibitive, leaving them without a local site to mourn fallen comrades.
In response to their emotional plea, VFW leadership committed to adding a Three Soldiers statue to the hillside to honor Vietnam veterans. Post leaders recognized that providing a dedicated place of solace is vital in Montana, where veteran suicide statistics remain alarmingly high.
Data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs indicates that the veteran suicide rate in Montana is 1.5 times higher than the national veteran average and roughly three times higher than the rate among the state's general civilian population. Bigfork VFW Commander Steve Gordon emphasized that providing veterans with a quiet sanctuary where they can process trauma is an essential community responsibility.
The VFW is also advancing a second phase of development by applying to construct a Gold Star Family Memorial. The only other Gold Star monument in Montana is located in Bozeman, making it difficult for local families—such as the parents of Army Captain Edward Matthew Saltz, the first Montana service member killed in action in Iraq in 2003—to visit a dedicated memorial nearby.
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