The Times asked readers to vote on the best features of Northwest Indiana at nwi.com. After a full week of voting, 12,000 votes were cast. The list of Regional Wonders has been finalized. Today begins the first of seven features on each reader-chosen winner, starting with seventh place.

Regional Wonder: Community Veterans Memorial, Munster

Votes: 518 (4 percent of total votes)

History: The idea for a war memorial was born in 1999 when a group of local veterans began talking about creating a place to honor war heroes. Originally slated to be one-third of the size it is now, the 9-acre memorial took three years to complete. It opened to the public on June 1, 2003. During its first year, the $3.2 million park had more than 100,000 visitors from 40 U.S. states and nine foreign countries.

Notable: The park contains separate memorials for every major U.S. conflict of the 20th century: World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam and Desert Storm. The memorials have been created from bronze, granite and actual war memorabilia such as a helicopter and a World War I cannon. Smaller artifacts include uniforms, guns and actual letters written from the war front. Memorials stand amid landcapes that depict the terrains of the countries where the conflict took place.

The park is also steeped in symbolism. The WWII monument, for example, is located at the highest point of the park, symbolizing the global enormity of this war, yet also directing visitors' eyes to a field of wildflowers in a far-off pasture to symbolize the hope for a peaceful future.

Comment: Don Johnson, project director and superintendent of the park, said his favorite part is in the WWII section.

"On the Pacific side of the memorial is a picture of the USS West Virginia - one of the ships that got bombed at Pearl Harbor," Johnson said. "The picture was a centerfold from LIFE magazine and depicts a life boat. John Latko, a Hammond resident, is in that boat and in the picture he is shown throwing out a life raft and saving someone."