Ontario War Memorials: Marathon

Saturday 18 March 2023

Marathon

Location: Thunder Bay District N 48.71786 N -86.37878

On Peninsula Road, across the street from the Recreation Centre/Arena, in the Canadian Tire parking lot.

This monument, located in Marathon Veterans Square, was installed on behalf of the local Royal Canadian Legion Branch 183 and the Town of Marathon. The main feature of the memorial is a LAVIII Light Armoured Vehicle supplied by Canada Company. Beside the LAV is a white cross memorial on a fieldstone base. Two black marble plaques are positioned beside the LAV, one which lists the local soldiers who served in Afghanistan and one which lists the sponsors of this project. There is also a plaque fixed to the side of the vehicle which briefly describes the Afghan mission.

At the time of my visit, this seemed to be strictly an Afghanistan memorial, although the same location is listed as the site of the town cenotaph which previously displayed a plaque honouring those who served in the World Wars. It is my hope that the town has re-installed this plaque at the same park and that it was simply "in progress" during my visit. I found the location of the park to be very odd, in the corner of a large retail parking lot, although we should not overlook the generous donation of the land to make this memorial possible.