The West Point Freedom Rock
Near Nauvoo, Iowa
This painted boulder is one of Iowa's Freedom Rocks, part of a tribute that grew from one young man's idea. In nineteen ninety-nine, a nineteen-year-old artist named Ray Sorensen, inspired by the film Saving Private Ryan, painted a large rock in Adair County with a simple message thanking veterans for their freedom. He repainted it every May for Memorial Day, and it became so beloved that he set himself a goal.
He would paint a Freedom Rock in every one of Iowa's ninety-nine counties. Over roughly eight years he did exactly that, each rock honoring the military history and veterans of its own community with hand-painted scenes. Sorensen went on to paint memorial rocks in other states too.
This boulder is the local chapter of that statewide labor of gratitude.
