“Matt Would Want That” — The Growing Memorial for Alaskan Bush People Star That Has an Entire Community Showing Up

It started with a phone call to a tow truck company and a refusal to let a truck go to the impound yard. Now, days later, the memorial for Matt Brown outside a local shop in Oroville, Washington has become something far bigger than anyone originally planned — and it keeps growing.

Max Is Covered in Flowers

Every day, more vehicles pull into the lot across from Frontier Foods. More people arrive with flowers. More hands reach out to attach something — anything — to the blue truck Matt Brown called Max, the vehicle that became the anchor point for a community memorial that shows no signs of stopping.

“Matt’s memorial is growing,” the shop owner said in a video update, surveying a truck now blanketed in tributes from people who drove in from surrounding areas just to leave something behind. “Getting more and more vehicles pulling in.”

Wreaths have been placed around the base. The windows are covered. Community members have been working steadily to fill every available surface — the roof, the doors, every inch of Max — with flowers and remembrances for a man many of them had followed for years through a screen and felt they knew personally.

A memorial sign, glued in place with E6000 adhesive, was attached to the truck. “It ain’t coming off for a long time,” someone noted approvingly.

Infrared cameras have been set up to protect the memorial from anyone who might consider taking anything. “Please don’t take anything off the truck,” the shop owner asked visitors plainly.

The Bike Mix-Up Nobody Will Let Him Forget

The morning also brought what can only be described as an only-in-a-small-town moment — one that briefly threatened to turn a solemn day into something considerably more chaotic.

After receiving a photo from a community member suggesting that Matt’s bicycle had been spotted behind a local Mexican restaurant, the shop owner drove over, loaded the bike into Max and brought it back to the memorial.

It was the wrong bike.

“I stole a kid’s bicycle this morning,” the shop owner admitted, visibly mortified, in a video update to followers. “He has brought us Matt’s real bike. I did return the other bike. I promise I took it back.”

Matt’s actual bicycle — identified by someone from the community who remembered seeing it in one of Matt’s videos — was brought to the memorial shortly after. A “true angel,” the shop owner said, delivered it.

The bike now sits with Max, where it belongs.

What Matt Would Have Wanted

The shop owner’s refrain throughout every update has been the same — a simple, honest instinct about the man the memorial is for.

“I think Matt would want that.”

Flowers. Community. People showing up. The sun coming out over Oroville on a day when grief and warmth somehow existed in the same space.

Matt Brown appeared on Alaskan Bush People from 2014 until 2019. A postmortem examination is underway to determine the official cause of death.

Max sits in the lot. The flowers keep coming. And the sunshine, as someone sang nearby, keeps showing up too.

If you or someone you know is struggling, contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988.

Source: Compiled from various sources