Hazel Miner Monument

Hazel Miner's Memorial

This gothic-arch-topped upright granite slab looks like a tombstone, but it isn't. "In memory of Hazel Miner," read the German block letters engraved on it. "To the dead a tribute, to the living a memory, to posterity an inspiration."

Hazel Miner was a 15-year-old from Center who got lost in a blizzard on March 15, 1920, along with her younger brother and sister, on her way home from school. As night fell she lay on top of them, saving their lives. She sacrificed her own.

But the monument doesn't tell you any of that. Instead, in big, all caps letters, the inscription continues: "The story of her life and her heroic, tragic death is recorded in the archives of Oliver County on pages 130-131, book H, misc. records. STRANGER, READ IT." Poor Hazel: one wonders why the monument-makers didn't just briefly explain who she was, rather than reduce her memorial to a plug for the local bureaucracy.

Hazel Miner's Memorial

Centennial Park

Address:: Center Ave., Center, ND
Directions:: Monument hidden behind some bushes on the northwest corner of Market St. and Center Ave./Hwy 48, just south of the museum in the small log cabin. Grave is 1 mi. away in Center Community Cemetery.

Nearby Offbeat Places

Scientific Center of North America, Center, ND - 4 mi.

Salem Sue, World's Largest Holstein Cow, New Salem, ND - 19 mi.

Statue of Lewis and Clark's Big Dog, Washburn, ND - 16 mi.

In the region:

Life-Size 32-Piece Cattle Drive, Mandan, ND - 27 mi.

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