12 years ago, the Town of Prescott Valley (the small Northern Arizona community in which I live), erected an annual memorial to the victims of 9/11 called “Healing Fields.”
The memorial covers the entire grounds of our civic center’s plaza. Each flag planted into the lawn represents a victim on that day of infamy. Each flag bears a placard with the name of the person it represents. If that person was a firefighter, a pair of turnout boots is placed at the foot of their flag. If a police officer, a pair of black police boots. US military personnel have a pair of desert combat boots at the foot of theirs. The one which always brings tears to my eyes are those of the children who perished that terrible day; each one has a teddy bear suspended from the flagpole.
Granite Mountain Hotshots
There is also a section devoted to our hometown heroes, the 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots wilderness firefighting crew who died in the Yarnell, Arizona wildfire on June 30, 2013 (Right after it happened, I wrote an article about this event; you can read it here). One of my wife’s closest friends at our public library is the mother of Andrew Ashcraft, one of those brave souls who died that day. As an act of remembrance for her son, each year she goes to his flag and places a bottle of his favorite beverage, Dr. Pepper, into one of his boots.
Below are some photos I took of the Healing Fields a few years back.
Thanks for reading!
9/11
Plaque at the Healing Fields memorial
Map of the civic center lawns showing each section of the Healing Fields memorial
The Healing Fields Memorial
Close-up of some of the flags
Flag of a firefighter
Flag of a police officer
Flag of a member of the US military
Flag of a child who died that day
Granite Mountain Hotshots Flags
19 flags representing the Granite Mountain Hotshots crew
The bio on the flag of Andrew Ashcraft, one of the Granite Mountain Hotshots
The boots at the foot of the flag for Andrew Ashcraft, one of the Granite Mountain Hotshots.
(note the bottle of Dr. Pepper placed there by his mother).
The Healing Fields during a thunderstorm (click to view at full size)
DISCLAIMER: I am neither an employee of nor a spokesperson for the Town of Prescott Valley. I have published this as a private citizen for your information and edification.
So very cool, I had no idea Prescott Valley had this nice tribute to our fallen heroes. Is it up all week or is it taken down on Sept 12th? My younger sister is coming up from PHX this weekend for a Dog Show Scent Trial, somewhere over on Skoog BLVD. I’ll be attending, giving her and her dogs moral support.
It’s still up as I passed the Civic Center today. But I don’t expect it to survive the weekend.