Courtesy of Dawes Memorial Library

Start Westward Monument
300 Block Front Street in Muskingum Park

Dedicated on July 8, 1938 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Start Westward Monument celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Ordinance of 1787 and the opening of the Northwest Territory at Marietta in 1788. Gutzon Borglum, sculptor of Mt. Rushmore, designed the monument with local stone carvers executing his vision using local sandstone. Created for a cost of $127,000, the sculpture’s primary figures represent late eighteenth century pioneers departing Marietta for the west. The monument is part of a larger complex at Muskingum Park including four inscribed obelisks on Front Street and the stairs and pavement leading to the Muskingum River.