Grafton Mayor Provides Update on National Memorial of Military Ascent

Our Daily Show Interview! Mayor Morrow: State of Grafton 2026!

GRAFTON - As Grafton gears up to complete Phase One of the National Memorial of Military Ascent later this year, Mayor Mike Morrow couldn’t be more excited.

Morrow shared that Phase One of the project will be unveiled on June 6, 2026, the anniversary of D-Day. The National Memorial of Military Ascent (NMMA) will be a unique addition to Grafton that, Morrow hopes, will bring in tourists to appreciate military history and honor Grafton’s veteran population.

“This is going to be the only one like it in the world,” Morrow said. “It is very heartwarming to know it's for the veterans. I don’t care if you’re a Republican, Democrat, independent. I tell all these guys when they argue, I say, it’s for the veterans. We can all get together. We can all decide that we can all get along to support our veterans.”

The memorial will be located at the Grafton Visitor’s Center. Twelve life-sized statues of soldiers will be placed along the limestone bluffs to recreate the soldiers’ climb up Point du Hoc on D-Day in Normandy.

North Carolina Bronze has been tasked with creating the statues of the soldiers. Local reenactors from the 2nd Ranger Battalion posed as models.

North Carolina Bronze owners Ed and Melissa Walker scanned the reenactors to create the statues. Morrow said the first few statues have been commended by NMMA leaders for their “authenticity.”

“They’ve taken those models then, they’ve taken them with a digital footprint, they send the digital footprint out to Portland and up to Michigan, and those places 3D-print sections,” Morrow explained. “They come back to North Carolina where they’re welded together and processed and filled. They do the process, and then they go ahead and it’s just beautiful when it comes out.”

Every step of this process has been recorded by a documentary crew. Morrow hopes to eventually finalize a documentary project after the memorial is realized.

Morrow, a veteran, also serves as the NMMA nonprofit’s president. He presented the idea for the memorial a few years ago to highlight that Grafton has the highest population of veterans per capita in Illinois.

He said the community will celebrate the end of Phase One with a "military ball"-style party on June 6 at The Loading Dock, complete with a 1940s singer, a swing band and speeches.

Morrow also thanked the many organizations, businesses and community members who have donated toward the NMMA, including Grafton’s Witches on the Water event, which has raised over $60,000 over the past few years. The nonprofit is still welcoming donations.

For more information about the National Memorial of Military Ascent, including how to donate, visit the official website at GraftonMemorial.org.

In addition to honoring veterans, Morrow hopes the memorial will lead to more tourism in the community.

“This area is going to be soaked for tourism,” he added. “It’s going to be fantastic.”

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