The Wrangell Mariners’ Memorial every year adds commemorative plaques to its display walls. Volunteers this year have embarked on an additional project, adding beach gravel and grass to give the waterfront site an even more seashore feeling.

“We want to be as natural as possible,” said Jenn Miller-Yancey, president of the nonprofit’s board.

The crew had earlier spread gravel and beach grass on a test site at the north end of the memorial at Heritage Harbor before starting this month on the larger area alongside the walkway by the commemorative walls and gazebo.

“If it works like our test site did, it will be fantastic,” Miller-Yancey said.

They dumped and spread about five cubic yards of gravel this month, with maybe 10 more yards still to go on the water side, working within U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rules for harvesting small quantities of beach gravel, she said.

Volunteers are placing a weed mat over the ground, before spreading the gravel, to limit weeds from popping up and crowding the beach grass.

They will landscape the water side of the walkway and memorial first, moving to the harbor side later.

“Our goal is to eventually fill the perimeter of the area with beach gravel and plant local beach grass into the gravel. The intent is to keep the landscaping low maintenance and keep it as natural as possible,” Miller-Yancey said. “We hope to do another beach gravel harvest in 2026.”

Brett Woodbury, of BW Enterprises, lent equipment for the effort, including a motorized wheelbarrow to haul and dump the gravel. “That power wheelbarrow was a game-changer,” Miller-Yancey said of the workload on volunteers.

Though they are parking their equipment for the winter, the Wrangell Mariners’ Memorial board will be active in December and January, accepting applications to add commemorative plaques to the display walls.

The memorial opened in 2022, adding names every year and now at 89 brass plaques as of this year’s additions, honoring people who were part of the community’s maritime industry.

Each application should include the name of the deceased, a brief tribute that will be featured on the plaque and a story about the life of the mariner, which will be stored and available on the memorial’s online server.

Board members will be available to assist people in completing applications from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 11 and 29, Jan. 6, 14, 22 and 30 at the Nolan Center. Applications also are available online at wrangellmarinersmemorial.com.

The deadline is Jan. 31. There is a $400 fee to cover the cost of creating the plaque and installation, and must be paid with each application.

The 2026 plaques will be installed in the spring.

People can call Jeff Jabusch at 907-305-0086 or Miller-Yancey at 907-305-0926 with questions.