Veterans Rock Unveiled in St. Cloud

(KNSI) – The last brush strokes ran across the new Veterans Rock on Sunday, less than 24 hours before the piece of art was dedicated at an event at St. Cloud’s Wilson Park.

Corey Verkinnes lives in town, which made him the primary artist on the project. He has experience with painting and clay and even worked in a tattoo parlor at one time, but he says there were still challenges when working with a 27,000-pound stone.

He tells KNSI News about the adjustments he made for his mural, ‘Defenders of Freedom.’ He took advantage of special equipment to help shape the rock. “I used one of my grinders for the side that I designed, which was the actual flag with all the silhouettes in it, and the saluting with the eagle. So, I grinded that down pretty well with the grinder I have. So that ended up being a little bit easier than the other sides.”

Verkinnes’s work is on the east face of the rock. He also contributed to the landscape on the west end with a small scene of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima. Five others also added to it, and the rock was a true labor of love for several.

It is fitting that a mural depicting sacrifice and dedication required both in spades from its creators. Shannon Stormy Reyes has been making the trip from Bemidji each weekend since late spring.

She says, “I just got a job with the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs, Higher Education Veterans Program as their northwest regional coordinator. So, I drive all week to Crookston, Thief River Falls, East Grand Forks, and then would come and drive on Saturday up here and spend eight, nine hours painting and drive the two-and-a-half hours home.”

Other artists were spread out from Watertown to Scandia, all filling in different parts of the landscape scene on the western face of the boulder. They were rarely at the park at the same time, making coordinating the effort challenging.

Stormy Reyes notes, “It’s hard to collaborate when you’re not all together all the time. So, that made it very difficult. Sometimes I’d come and be like, ‘Oh, that changed.’ Sometimes I would be the one changing it, and I felt bad, but I think it turned out beautifully. I think everybody did a really good job.”

The west face is a landscape piece featuring known Minnesota landmarks like Split Rock Lighthouse woven in with imagery from all six branches of the military. She says her favorite part is the oath of service on the narrower north end. The other narrow portion shows a grave site with a field of poppies.

Verkinnes was asked what he wanted people to take away when they visit Veterans Rock. He replied, “The real reason why I volunteered for this is I really feel nowadays that people, they’ve lost the sense of accountability and what it means to really put yourself and everything that you have on the line for freedom. A lot of people die defending what we hold great, and a lot of people don’t appreciate it.”

Recent polling shows patriotism at or near an all-time low, a major theme of the dedication. Organizer Caroline Stringer says the rock is proof that the sacrifice of veterans has not gone unnoticed locally.