Murphysboro celebrated its first Logan Day on August 3, 1914, drawing 25,000 visitors, including national dignitaries and many Civil War veterans, with the main focus on dedicating the cornerstone for a Logan statue and a museum for America's volunteer soldiers. World War I disrupted the effort, and Murphysboro did not dedicate the Logan Statue in front of the Middle School until 1930. The Great Depression and World War II then postponed any plans for a museum, and by 1946, after the Civil War generation had passed, those plans were forgotten. The monument is made of Boskydell sandstone quarried south of Carbondale.