Cobain’s hometown considers memorial park

How does a city best honor someone who felt like its least favored son?

That’s the question in Aberdeen, Wash., the small community on the Wishkah River where Kurt Cobain grew up. The Nirvana frontman’s accounts of his youth in the town might be best described as the march of a miserable outsider, but that has not deterred a group of locals who are pushing for a memorial to the singer who committed suicide a decade ago.

Three Aberdeen teens speaking out in the local newspaper got the idea for the memorial rolling. The campaign led to a City Council session in May at which several ideas for an appropriate memorial were bandied about – among them a youth music center, an annual festival or a billboard perched atop a tall bluff.

There was also talk of a leafy downtown park with a graffiti wall to acknowledge the “teen spirit” factor. The existing acknowledgment of Cobain is limited; one muffler shop, however, does have a sculpture of him made by a local artist.

Some residents are not thrilled by the idea of heralding the roots of a celebrity who to nonrock fans is best known as a drug addict and suicide victim, but supporters say there is also economic value in a Cobain memorial.

Every year, young people from around the world hop off buses in Aberdeen to see their idol’s birthplace. The lack of local Cobain sites forces them “to wander town aimlessly before giving up and heading back to Seattle to spend time at the Experience Music Project,” a committee backing the memorial argued in a newspaper editorial.

Local journalist Jeff Burlingame says the committee’s Web site, www.kurtcobainmemorial.org, has been “booming. Fund-raisers are being scheduled, and the committee is looking forward to meetings this month when details of the projects should coalesce.

“Our two initial goals are public signage recognizing Nirvana was from here, and a Kurt Cobain Memorial Park,” Burlingame said.

“The prior is coming along nicely and the latter is at a stalemate as we try to negotiate with the owner of a specific parcel of land we’re looking to purchase.”