Moose won’t mince monumental directions in Greenville, Maine

Perhaps a bull moose could direct Civil War buffs to the veterans’ monument in Greenville, Maine? A “real McCoy” Bullwinkle would likely know where to find what I can’t.

Home to about 1,430 year-round residents, Greenville spreads along the southern shore of Moosehead Lake. Mountains, forests, and waterways surround Moosehead, at approximately 118 square miles the largest lake in Maine. Moose are endemic to what’s called the Moosehead Lake Region.

So are patriots. At least 940 men and women from Greenville and adjacent towns have served in the American military since the War of 1812. Many did so doing the Civil War …

… and the state claims there’s a monument that honors veterans of that war and three others.

The state government maintains a website listing in alphabetical order the cities and towns where Civil War monuments are located in Maine. I’ve used this website during my long quest to photograph all those monuments.

Each municipal page has the same design, which includes nine types of information and, hopefully, a monument’s photo. We visit Greenville each spring (sometime between late May and early June) to look for moose and see what’s happening in the Moosehead Lake Region.

So, several years ago I clicked on Greenville’s page to learn about the Greenville monument. Imagine my surprise upon learning not much!

The Greenville page indicates the location of the town’s monument is “plaque on boulder,” and the “materials” are “granite, bronze.” The accompanying black-and-white photo depicts a bronze eagle perched atop a potato-shaped boulder to which a bronze plaque is attached. The two buildings partially visible behind the boulder do not hint as to where the monument was placed.

The Greenville page offers no information for “date erected,” “maker/sculptor,” “date dedicated,” or “source of funding.” The only additional information is provided under “principal inscriptions”: “In Honor of the Men From/The Town of Greenville/Who Answered Their Country’s Call/And Devoted Themselves/To the Cause of Freedom/The War of 1812/The Civil War/1861-1865/The Spanish War/The World War/1917-1918”

A large boulder being difficult to hide, where is it? Perhaps in the Greenville Cemetery bordering the southern edge of the village? Nope.

Perhaps along Pritham Avenue connecting downtown Greenville with Greenville Junction, about a mile to the west? Nope.

Somewhere along the town’s Moosehead Lake shore? Nope. After searching five or six years for the monument, I gave up. We saw at least one moose almost every annual visit, but found no monument. Perhaps I should have asked a bull moose for directions …

On a sunny and gorgeous day in late May 2025, we sallied forth to Greenville to seek a moose. I didn’t even think about the town’s monument.

Our annual moose safari follows a traditional route. We stop at the “DOT pit” on Route 15 in Shirley and wait a while to see if a moose arrives to drink water in the adjacent wetland. Then we drive six miles north to downtown Greenville, check out what’s happening there, head 19 miles up the Lily Bay Road to show the flag in Kokadjo (Ko-KAHD-Jo), and drive 19 miles back to Greenville for lunch.

Before leaving Greenville for Kokadjo on this trip, we sought the public restrooms at the waterfront Moosehead Marine Museum. The restrooms were closed, and a sign directed visitors to use the public restrooms at Greenville’s public-safety building from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday-Friday.

We found the public-safety building, located a short distance away on Linden Street. After we exited the Rogue, I noticed the noisy construction taking place around the Memorial Wall located in the small public park between the parking lot and Moosehead Lake Road (also Route 15), which comes up from Shirley. The Memorial Wall lists 940 area veterans (mostly from Greenville). We’ve driven past it multiple times.

The public-safety building’s exit faces the Memorial Wall and Moosehead Lake Road. As we left the building and stepped into the sunlight, I noticed a potato-shaped boulder located on the same strip of greenery as the Memorial Wall.

“It can’t be,” I thought. “It’s gotta be!”

It was. Minus its bronze eagle, the Greenville monument was there in all its glory, where it apparently was set sometime after World War I ended. We’ve driven past that monument, coming and going, for at least the last 27 years, and I had never noticed the boulder and its attached bronze plaque.

I should’ve asked a bull moose for directions decades ago …

By the way, we did see a Bullwinkle on this trip to Moosehead.

Note: This post was published jointly with Maine at War.