Montana Symbols
Montana State Garden
Veterans' Memorial Rose Garden
Missoula, Montana
Adopted in 1999.
The Missoula memorial rose garden, located in Missoula, Montana, was officially designated as a state veterans' memorial rose gardenwas adopted in 1999.
Montana State Garden:
Veterans' Memorial Rose Garden
This garden was envisioned as a living memorial to Montana veterans. The idea was proposed by Thomas W. Walsh, who served in both World Wars I and II and was a rose enthusiast. Ground was broken on the garden by then governor Orville Freeman in 1955 and the three plot garden was dedicated in June of 1956. Arranged by color and type, the garden has about 800 roses, a mix of hybrid teas, grandifloras and multifloras. The garden is geometric and formal in layout and lacks signage.
On 12 November 1944, six Missoula members of the American Rose Society suggested that a Missoula park be commemorated as a site which would perpetuate
the memory of members of the armed forces, from Missoula County, killed in WW II. That park would be named Missoula Rose Memorial Park.
Civic activists C E Simons and Glen Smith gathered donations from throughout Montana to establish the park. The first planting of rose bushes began
in 1946. Further, the park borders a Blue Star Memorial Highway, part of a nationwide highway network started by the National Council of State Garden
Clubs, Inc. in 1945 to pay tribute to the armed forces that have defended the United States of America.
The park has since become the site for memorials dedicated to the memory of veterans and casualties of America's twentieth century conflicts including
Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, the Persian Gulf and now Korea.
In April 1999, Governor Marc Racicot signed Senate Bill 352 which designated the Missoula Memorial Rose Garden as a "State Veteran's Memorial Rose
Garden" and the Korean War Memorial as a "State Korean War Memorial" Both will be shown on official Montana State Highway maps.
Montana Law
The law designating the rose garden, located in Missoula, Montana as the official Montana state veterans' memorial rose garden is found in the Montana
Revised Statutes, Title 1, Chapter 1, Part 5, Section 1-1-518
TITLE 1. GENERAL LAWS AND DEFINITIONS
CHAPTER 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS
Part 5. State Symbols - Official Designations
1-1-518. State veterans' memorial rose garden. (1) The Missoula memorial rose garden, located in Missoula, Montana, is officially designated as a state
veterans' memorial rose garden.
(2) In addition to the reference required under 1-1-512, the department of commerce and the department of transportation
shall identify the Missoula memorial rose garden on official state maps as a state veterans' memorial rose garden.
History: En. Sec. 1, Ch. 296, L. 1999.
