Veteran banners return to downtown Jamestown for summer display
Downtown Jamestown’s light poles are lined again with veteran banners, with 59 ordered for a display that runs from Memorial Day to Patriot Day.
Jamestown’s Main Street poles are carrying a different kind of welcome this season: veteran banners are back on display in the downtown core, turning the route past 2nd Avenue Southwest and the All Vets Club into a public tribute to military service.
The project is organized by American Legion Post 14 and American Legion Auxiliary Ernest D. Robertson Unit 14, and it uses the city’s existing brackets on downtown poles to make the display possible. While the veteran banners are up, the usual “Welcome to Jamestown” banners come down and are later restored, a small exchange that has become part of how the city marks the season.
The display is scheduled to remain in place from Memorial Day through Patriot Day on Sept. 11. That long run gives the banners a place in Jamestown’s warm-weather rhythm, where residents, downtown businesses and visitors see the tribute repeatedly as they move through the city center.
Interest in the project has grown enough that 57 veteran banners were installed last year, and organizers ordered 59 for the current cycle. The banners can honor veterans, retired service members, active-duty personnel and those listed as missing in action, and most of the honorees are from Stutsman County. Organizers also made clear that the program is open beyond county lines, widening the circle of service recognized on Jamestown’s streets.
The project also has formal city backing. The Jamestown Finance & Legal Committee recommended approval of a Banners on City Right of Way Agreement with American Legion Post 14 and the auxiliary on March 24, 2026, and the Jamestown City Council approved the same three-year agreement on April 6, 2026. The issue had already drawn public attention at a City Council meeting on Oct. 6, 2025, when Shelley Mansavage and Shirly Krapp appeared before council to ask that the Veteran Banner Project be addressed by the city.
The banners fit into a broader local pattern of remembrance that includes Memorial Day and Patriot Day observances organized by the Jamestown Patriotic Council. In 2025, that council’s Memorial Day program brought together American Legion Post 14 and Auxiliary, the All Vets Club, VFW Post 760 and Auxiliary, DAV Chapter 31, the Jamestown Drum and Bugle Corps and the Vietnam Veterans and 20th Infantry Regiment/Fort Seward. The day began at Shady’s in the Gladstone Inn & Suites, moved to a naval ceremony at the Nickeus Park bridge, continued with cemetery observances and ended with a Veterans’ Memorial Wall ceremony at Fort Seward, followed by a freewill-donation luncheon at the All Vets Club.
That same network shaped Jamestown’s 2025 Patriot Day observance, which included a Freedom Walk led by the American Legion Post 14 Color Guard and ended at the All Vets Club. Together, the banner display and the city’s observances give Jamestown a visible, seasonal way to remember service, honor families and keep veterans’ names in the center of town.
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