Blue Star Memorial Highway

Columbia County, GA

This monument honors the men and women of Columbia County, Georgia, who answered their nation's call to arms and gave their lives in service. Its inscription reaches across every conflict in which the county's sons and daughters have fought rather than singling out one war. Community war memorials like this one anchor national sacrifice in the places soldiers called home.

Sandersville, GA

Blue Star Memorial markers trace to 1945, when New Jersey garden clubs lined a highway with blue-star dogwoods to honor service members of World War II; the program soon grew into a nationwide network of roadside tributes to all who have served. This marker in Sandersville was placed by the Town and Country Garden Club with the Garden Club of Georgia and the state Department of Transportation, continuing a tradition that ties quiet local landscaping to a national gesture of gratitude. The blue star itself echoes the service flags families hung in their windows for loved ones in uniform.

Augusta, GA

First planted in 1945 by the National Garden Clubs, Blue Star Memorial markers honor the armed forces along the highways of America, their emblem borrowed from the service flags of World War II. In Augusta, the Garden Arts Club joined the Garden Club of Georgia to set this marker in Richmond County. It salutes all who have defended the nation.

Crawfordville, GA

The Blue Star Memorial idea was born in 1945 from New Jersey garden clubs who honored service members by planting flowering trees along a highway, the blue star recalling the banners families hung in their windows during World War II. Adopted by the National Garden Clubs, the program reached small towns like Crawfordville, where the Sharon-Raytown Garden Club and American Legion Roy Dozier Post 8 placed this tribute to all who have defended the nation.