After a major cleaning by the Robert Gray Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Fort Chehalis Monument at Harriett Dorland Municipal Park/Westport City Park will be re-dedicated Saturday, May 8.

The monument, a large brass marker mounted on an even larger boulder, was placed by the Robert Gray Chapter in June 1929. Over nearly a century, the Westport weather had rendered the plaque almost unreadable.

Chapter Regent Joyce Thomasson and others removed the plaque from the boulder, and enlisted the advice of Mick Hersey, who Thomasson said has cleaned more than 600 monuments and tombstones in his lifetime, to clean the plaque and stone. Hersey is a retired U.S Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer who lives in Bremerton and has dedicated himself to recognizing veterans and preserving memorial markers and historical monuments.

The monument marks the spot where Fort Chehalis once stood. It was built in 1860, as settlers were arriving to the Harbor. It staffed about 50 soldiers until the onset of the Civil War shortly after it was completed and the soldiers were called back east to fight in the war. The camp itself was dismantled, the lumber used elsewhere.

This isn’t the first monument restoration project undertaken by the Robert Gray Chapter. In 2018, members re-dedicated the Lone Tree Marker in Ocean Shores, which marks the location where, according to history, Capt. Robert Gray used a tree to guide his way inside the harbor that would become his namesake.

“It’s important to preserve our history,” said Thomasson, about the chapter’s monument preservation efforts.

The re-dedication will take place at 2 p.m. at the park, located off Baker Street in Westport.