TREMONTON – After 80 years, the Borgstrom brothers who gave all they could for their country and their community received the recognition many have long been waiting for.
The four brothers and sons of Alben and Gunda Borgstrom were serving in WWII and were killed within six months of each other. Clyde, the fifth son, was sent home and the sixth son was too young to serve.
The war took the lives of many Utahns, but few families in the U.S. had sacrificed as much as the Borgstroms of the Tremonton area. Clyde was the first to be killed, then Elmer, LeRoy and twins Rulon and Rolon were all killed.
Boyd was sent home and discharged after his four brothers were killed.
In March, Mayor Lyle Holmgren and his wife Kathy were visiting the Riverview Cemetery. They happened to be at the Clyde’s Borgstrom gravestone and noticed death date was the next day 80 years earlier on March 17, 1944, and it struck them. It had been 80 years since his passing.
That’s when the wheels started turning. The mayor reached out to some of the soldier’s relatives still living in the area and local sculptor Val Lewis.
Lewis came up with a plan of an eagle with a seven-foot wingspan atop a memorial with four arches with stars attached to them.
“We thought the idea looked good and so did the family,” Holmgren said. “We gave him the go-ahead and told him to start working on it.”
The memorial not only covers the brother’s headstones, it also covers their parents, too.
So far, the city has contributed $30,000, the rest is being covered by private donations. A balance is still pending.
“We were very happy with the memorial,” he said. “It is an appropriate memorial to honor the service of the four brothers.”
Tremonton didn’t forget the Borgstrom brothers. It did take 80 years, but the community finally honored their sacrifice to the county and the memorial shows it, the mayor said.
Lewis said he wanted the memorial to recognize the soldiers’ service to the country, not their deaths.
“I didn’t think we wanted to memorialize their deaths,” he said. “I wanted to memorialize the service they did for the country.”
There were four marble markers that were hard to find; people had to look all over for them.
“I wanted something that grabbed your attention as soon as people came through the gates of the cemetery,” Lewis said. “I wanted a site that would honor their service. How else but an American eagle?”
That was the sculptor’s thought process. He showed them the eagle and told them about his vision for the memorial.
“I already had the eagle mold from a war memorial I did for Soda Springs,” he said. “It took a few months to get the bronzed eagle back and another few to complete the rest of it.”
Lewis said he thought it would last for the next 200 years.
The ceremony to introduce the memorial ended up being a big deal. They invited the governor and other dignitaries to come for Memorial Day.
Governor Spencer Cox came to Tremonton and a large crowd gathered to recognize the memorial.
Cox not only recognized the Borgstrom family for the sacrifice during WWII, but he recognized all the armed servicemen for their service to preserving freedom.
When people visit the Riverview Cemetery in Tremonton the Borgstrom memorial with the eagle spreading its wings atop adorned with four stars stands out in the sea of other markers.