Mark Beauchamp is on a quest.
The Wichita County Commissioner wants a memorial erected to one of the most memorable, albeit tragic, events in Wichita Falls history — the April 10, 1979, tornado.
“That day was so significant in our history, and the aftermath and the response from our community was a coming together like nothing before,” Beauchamp said.
The tornado killed at least 45 people in the city, injured 1,800 others and left 20,000 homeless as it cut a 1.5-mile-wide, 8-mile-long path across the city, according to the National Weather Service.
“Let’s make something that people can go and remember and pay respects and understand and learn from the whole thing,” Beauchamp said.
Although he doesn’t have final vision in mind of what it might look like, Beauchamp envisions a wall with people’s stories from the event along with a sculpture at the center.
“I think we can come up with something that would suitably show that day, not glorifying the storm, but indicating the magnitude it was,” Beauchamp said. “And then, of course, reflect back with all the stories on the wall.”
Beauchamp said with the 50th anniversary of the tornado coming soon, “those of us who were around (at the time) are getting few and farther between.”
“It lives in the memory of our children, because they’ve been passed down the stories,” he said. “But let’s continue to tell those stories so they’re not lost — because they’re about to be lost.”
He thinks Wood Memorial Park on Maplewood Avenue near Sikes Senter would be a good location for it. That area was ground zero in the path of the twister and holds the only present monument to it, a small marker with the names of those killed.
Beauchamp sees the effort being paid for by the community and not necessarily coming from tax dollars. He said he thinks grants and funding from the community could get the work done.
He said he thinks Wichita Falls has lost some of the community spirit it developed in the tornado’s aftermath.
“By doing something to memorialize it and having community be the number one participant in it, then hopefully we can recapture some of that. I think we need it desperately in this community,” he said.
Wichita County has been approved for an official Texas historical marker to memorialize the tornado.
Becky Tramell, historical marker chairperson of the Wichita County Historical Commission, said the marker will be placed in Rotary Park in west Wichita Falls, another area struck by the storm.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: One man wants a memorial to the April 10, 1979 tornado ordeal
Reporting by Lynn Walker, Wichita Falls Times Record News / Wichita Falls Times Record News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Lynn Walker, Wichita Falls Times Record News | USA TODAY Network
