Victory Memorial Drive in Minneapolis was created as a living World War I memorial after Charles Loring urged the Board of Park Commissioners to dedicate part of the Grand Rounds to Hennepin County’s fallen men and women, and he and park superintendent Theodore Wirth envisioned trees themselves as the memorial. North of Lowry Avenue, 1,217 elm trees were planted in rank and file order, with 568 dedicated to the county’s war dead, and Loring personally funded the planting and established a $50,000 endowment for their perpetual care. The drive was dedicated on June 11, 1921, before more than 30,000 spectators, as veterans, school children, mounted cavalry, and military and political leaders honored the dead. Wood markers placed by 555 trees were later increased to 568 and eventually replaced with bronze Christian crosses or Stars of David. The memorial continued to evolve as the original Moline elms planted in 1921 failed in Minnesota winters and were replaced by American elms, many of which later died of Dutch elm disease and were replaced by hackberry trees in the 1970s, though the trees remained a powerful memorial. Other additions and changes included a steel flagpole and brick base with bronze plaques in 1923, the Grand Army of the Republic Circle in 1924, bronze crosses and stars in 1928, a Lincoln statue in 1929, flat-laid bronze markers in 1953, granite flag base and walls in 1958, a bike trail and other parkway improvements in the 1970s, a reconstructed plaza in 1976, historic district designation in 2000, and a new monument and related improvements in 2010–2011.