The Grand Army of the Republic plot houses sixty known graves.  Most of these are Civil War veterans, but there are  six women and three children who are also buried here.  The last person to be buried in the plot was Mary Townsend, widow of veteran Horatio Townsend, who is also buried in the plot.  There is speculation that this could be the female ghost that has been reported near the plot.  With long hair, the woman looks down over the graves and says, “so much suffering.” 

Outside of ghostly activity at the plot, the statue has an interesting history.  Have you ever noticed that the head of the statue is a slightly different color?  The 25-foot statue of a Union infantryman is carved from blue marble and was placed there in 1903.  However, in 2001, vandals beheaded the statue and then smashed it.  An 800-pound block of blue marble was brought to Eugene from the same quarry in Vermont where the original marble was mined 98 years before.  Local artist David Miller was commissioned to sculpt the new head, and it was placed on the statue in February 2003.

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