We have become quite familiar with roadside memorials, installed after a fatal crash. Sometimes there’s a cross, sometimes there are flowers or stuffed animals. Sometimes there are even pictures.
Roadside memorials on public property are often intentionally left for a period of time and then removed.
The Washington State Department of Transportation has a roadside memorial program where driver safety signs may be purchased and erected to memorialize the loss of a loved one. A variety of signs are available with messages about drinking and driving, watching for bicyclists, and pulling over when you’re tired.
In the mountains two types of memorials can appear: The first is similar to roadside memorials where someone passed away. And the second are those that appear in an area that someone loved. However, unlike roadside memorials, the vast majority of the pop-up memorials on public lands are placed there because the person being memorialized loved the area, not because they died there.
For example, there’s been a cross with some other memorabilia at the base of a rock climb on Sehome Hill where a young man passed away in 2020. To date, the memorial remains undisturbed.
Mount Baker alone has harbored several of these over the years. At the end of the Heliotrope Ridge Trail, there used to be an unauthorized memorial plaque on Survey Rock. On the Park Butte Trail, there’s a small wooden memorial with a photo in it and a Bible verse. And there’s a snowboard with an individual’s name on it nailed to a tree near the Bagley Lake Parking Lot just outside the Mt. Baker Ski Area.
In addition to this, memorial items are left on mountain summits, often appearing in protective boxes. The boxes include things like books, glasses, cigarettes, rings or really anything that reminds an individual of the person.
Memorial items left on mountaintops don’t tend to last quite as long as other memorials. Often, they are only on a summit for a short period of time before someone takes them down. Many of these are placed on summits that see dozens of visitors in a single day and if they weren’t removed, the summit would be covered with memorabilia.
This gets to the heart of the issue with pop-up memorials on public lands. Though the family might recognize the person’s love for the area with a memorial, not everyone loves the memorials. In many areas it’s illegal to erect these, and many consider them to be nothing more than trash left on public lands.
The 1964 Wilderness Act sets a very high bar for any permanent alterations in federally designated Wilderness Areas found on public lands managed by any agency. Indeed, there isn’t a way to legally develop a memorial on such lands.
Terry Wildy, the chief of interpretation for Mount Rainier National Park, wrote in an email, “NPS sites do not allow the creation/installation of permanent or temporary memorials within the boundaries of any national park site, with very rare exceptions.”
She said most exceptions are made via an Act of Congress or due to a compelling justification of commemorative work, which may be made by a park’s director. However, for a director to approve a commemorative work, the park must go through a process in compliance with section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.
Washington State Parks doesn’t have a specific policy on pop-up memorials. However, Sarah Fronk, the State Parks communication manager, noted that any remembrances “uphold the natural beauty of the landscapes and generally follow the Leave No Trace principles.”
Leave No Trace is a philosophy that is not in line with leaving anything in a natural space over a long-term period. And though there are seven principles to Leave No Trace, the concepts of “pack it in, pack it out” and “take only pictures and leave only footprints,” are core to them. Clearly, these don’t support any kind of long-term unsanctioned memorial.
On the other hand, it’s tough to remove memorials. It feels disrespectful to the deceased and to their families. This puts both recreational users and land managers in a bind.
Perhaps, instead of leaving a memorial on a piece of public land, the best decision may be to visit the areas that a person loved and to remember their adventures and their experiences there. There is something profound about a natural landscape. And there’s something beautiful about imagining those that we lost in such landscapes.
Jason Martin's outdoors column appears monthly. Email: jason@alpineinstitute.com. Threads: @OutdoorPolitics.
