In 1919, Kansas Citians did something wild. To honor Great War veterans, local residents raised over $2.5 million in just ten days. They wanted a monument. In 1921, a crowd of 100,000 swarmed a muddy hill to kick off construction. They came to see the supreme Allied commanders. It remains the only time those five military giants-Pershing, Foch, Beatty, Diaz, and Jacques-ever gathered in one place. A massive diplomatic coup. And it happened in a Midwestern cowtown rather than Washington or Paris.

Architect Harold Van Buren Magonigle went big. He designed a towering, 217-foot Egyptian Revival limestone shaft that shoots steam and orange light into the night sky. It looks like a giant torch. At its base, two stone Sphinxes hide their faces behind massive wings, shielding their eyes from the memory of global slaughter. But the structure almost fell apart. By the 1990s, water damage and concrete rot threatened to destroy the whole plaza. Local taxpayers passed a new sales tax to save it. Congress later designated the site as the nation's official World War I museum. It is stark.