Spanish American War Memorial, Skagit County

This memorial in the Mount Vernon area honors the men from this corner of Washington who served in the Spanish American War and its immediate aftermath, from eighteen ninety-eight through nineteen oh two. That four-year span covered three theaters: Cuba, where the war began over the sinking of the Maine and Spanish colonial rule; Puerto Rico, seized in a matter of weeks; and the Philippine Islands, where what started as liberation quickly became a prolonged counterinsurgency that cost many American lives. The China Relief Expedition of nineteen hundred, during the Boxer Rebellion, rounded out the era. Local posts and auxiliaries of the United Spanish War Veterans kept these distinct campaigns tied together in public memory long after the newspapers moved on.