♪ >> announcer: this is the "cbs overnight news." >> i'm tanya rivero, and we have a lot more to tell you about this morning, starting with cyber monday. when the numbers are counted, it's expected americans spent more than $9 billion online yesterday, but what's good for shoppers is not so good for the malls and retail stores. one study found almost 1700 stores inside malls closed in 2018. another 4,000 have closed so far this year. those numbers didn't stop one company from building a brand-new monster-sized complex in new jersey. nikki battiste got a look around the american dream mall. >> reporter: these are the faces of one fearless family.

dropping straight down 141 feet at more than 62 miles per hour on the shell razor, a star attraction at the brand-new american dream. ceo don garmisian took me up, up and around america's newest play land. >> my office is cousin, cousin, cousin, brother, brother, brother, brother, father, father, father, father. >> reporter: he and his very large family, all 30 of them are the innovators behind this new, well, what should we call it? you don't like to call american dream a mall. so what do you call it? >> it's an experiential center. it's some place where you can go and do just about anything you could possibly imagine. >> reporter: in a time when malls are dying, are you worried at all? >> no. we've done it before. >> repor same family-run company, triple five group behind minnesota's famed mall of america and canada's west edmonton mall.

they both offer 75% retail and 25% entertainment, but american dream offers about 50% of each. >> if you think about it for a second, retail, it's not a secret. it's been a struggle. it's a struggle everywhere, right? >> reporter: you're not deterred by that? >> no. we're not deterred by it at all. i think great tour stiss there is always going to be a need. >> reporter: american dream cost about $6 billion to build and spans almost 70 acres. that's about 53 football fields. garmisian says it boasts the largest indoor amusement park in the western hemisphere with five roller coasters and 30 rides and attractions, with more on the way. there is also the world's biggest indoor wave pool and ice skating rink, and believe it or not, a year-round ski slope. but the project hasn't always been a smooth ride. it's taken 15 years to build,

gone through several owners, survived the 2008 financial crisis, and was a much less grand plan when the garmisians took the reins in 2011. it has caused major concerns for its neighbors. >> it definitely would create a nightmare for the city. it definitely will. >> reporter: michael ganelli is the mayor of seacaucus, the town millions of visitors are expected to travel through to reach american dream. >> my main concern is traffic. my main concern is how it looks because we're the only municipality in the entire district that actually looks at it. >> reporter: in 2004, the new jersey sports and exposition authority, which controls the land on which american dream sits agreed to make payments to the surrounding towns to ease the inevitable rising costs. does the potential boost to the economy outweigh the concerns about traffic and that it may be an eyesore? >> it sort of does because the economy will be boosted greatly. but, you know, we still have to really address each item and

traffic, the eyesore is something i don't know how we can address that. and the boosting the economy is great. but you still have to address all three. >> reporter: two sections of american dream opened on october 25th, and curious crowds have started to visit. but according to mayor ganelli, his town has yet to receive any money to help with the increase in visitors. when we asked american dream if they knew where the money was, they said they're not able to comment at this time. what do you say to that and his frustration and disparity? >> i think once they realize, and i think he does realize what we've created in value for seacaucus, i mean, you've got -- >> jobs. >> jobs. and at the end of the day, isn't that what it's almost all about? >> reporter: he argues this retail entertainment wonderland will not only attract area residents, but also draw tourists visiting new york city ten miles away. and where we're standing, what will we see here? >> we're going see luxury here, an incredible lineup of the best

luxury brands in the world. >> reporter: and then you have the luxury brands, but you also have more cost friendly retail as well? >> yes. >> reporter: century 21, h&m. >> that's right. >> reporter: getting customers into those stores and out of cyberspace is part of the job of marketing senior vice president debbie butiri. >> you can't experience dreamworks water park online. you can't take your first ski lesson online, right? >> reporter: to help you get around, there are interactive directories, and soon you can have their app on your phone. >> we have what we call the social responders. >> reporter: so i can message on my phone on my app, where's the ice skating rink or where do i get coffee? >> and we'll be able to guide you. >> reporter: the family is banking on their grand idea. so much so, they have put up almost 40% of mall of america and edmonton mall as collateral. what do you expect the profits to be? >> how many people are watching the show? >> reporter: when do you think you'll break even? >> i think we'll break even at year one. >> reporter: a money milestone

that many will be watching including retail analyst marshall koehn. >> it's no longer about retail first. it's now about entertainment first and retail fitting in. >> reporter: he says if american dream is a financial flop, a lot of people will feel it. >> the first ones to get to feel the pain if the mall doesn't succeed is certainly going to be the investors. but don't rule out the taxpayers and the municipalities if they don't get those tax payment. >> reporter: but don garmisian isn't losing any sleep over cash concerns. he is already dreaming up his next big idea. what keeps you up at night? you have to be a little bit worried. >> what keeps me up at night is thinking about what's the next crazy thing we're going put in here that is going to blow everybody away. that's what's kept me up for the last eight years, and we've

♪upbeat musieverything was so fresh in the beginning. [sniff] ♪ dramatic music♪ but that plug quickly faded. ♪upbeat music luckily there's febreze plug. it cleans away odors and freshens for 1200 hours. [deep inhale] breathe happy with febreze plug. hidden high in the rocky mountains of colorado in a remote and unmarked field is a secret monument honoring war veterans. lee cowan made the trek up into the mountains to unlock the mystery of soldier stone. >> reporter: the continental divide, that invisible mountain boundary that tells a river whether to flow east or west. but not everything up here is that clear-cut. in the stand of trees impossibly alone sits this pillar of polished granite. just what it is and how it got

all the way up here has puzzled the hearty few who have found it for decades. >> they just stumble on it and what the heck is this. >> we still don't know that, right? >> it makes people think. >> reporter: rob roy isn't comfortable talking about this mountaintop mystery, in part because he made a vow of silence to the man who built it. >> dps his late uncle, the soldier behind soldier stone. >> this is kind of contrary to what uncle alan may have wanted. he doesn't want to beat the drum. i'm beating the drum and a lot of other people are. >> by all accounts colonel beckley was a soldier's soldier. he served for nearly a decade in southeast asia, during the vietnam war. >> you know anything about special force, green berets, they're the people who parachute behind the lines and they work with indigenous people and help them defend themselves. >> reporter: but most of what he

was doing then, he couldn't really talk about. >> correct. >> reporter: the troops he trained and served with had been secretly recruited by the cia. made up mostly of hmong and lao descent, this secret army took tens of thousands of casualties fighting communism in southeast asia, lives that otherwise might have been american. but for decades, the u.s. government denied their sacrifice. in recording colonel beckley made after he retired, it was clear that ignoring those foreign fighters haunted him long after the war had ended. >> i made a silent promise to myself that they would have their memorial, and it would not just be in asia, that their memorial would be in the united states as compatriots of ours. >> i mean, this was a mission. >> reporter: in 1990, colonel beckley set out to build his tribute with the help of a stone cutter by the name of mike donaldson. >> so when he first described

what he wanted to do, what did you think? >> i thought he was a quack at first, and within 30 minutes, i knew he wasn't. >> reporter: did he explain why he was building it? >> it kind of got revealed to me over time, but he did want it remote. and the people who needed to find it would find it. >> we're just on top of the world. >> reporter: this long forgotten videotape documented the construction. >> they started the monument. >> reporter: civilians, active duty and retired veterans made up the small army who unloaded eight tons of hand-carved granite. not just for the pillar, but 36 so-called quote stones weighing 300 pounds apiece, etched with a poem or a prove verb written in laotian, thai, vietnamese or other languages that were then scattered like fallen troops around the monument itself. in the summer of 1995, colonel beckley's memorial to foreign

fighters was finally finished. it was the same year colonel beckley died of cancer. he never saw his offering in person. >> when we walked away, it was done. that was the end of it. besides a few people that stumbled across it on the continental divide trail, nobody knew it was there. >> reporter: until this happened. >> we come across this memorial out in the middle of nowhere. >> reporter: in 2013, a youtube post appeared. the secret of soldierstone was out. >> i read that the park rangers keep this location private. >> we have tried very hard as much as we can to respect his vision, that it would be a spot where people would just sort of find it. >> reporter: ranger tristan post will help you find colonel beckley's soldier's stone, but only if you ask. she doesn't publicize the exact location and neither will we.

>> so this is the official folder that we keep in here. >> reporter: i've never seen this. what's this? >> we will share this. >> reporter: that's very good. rob roy had ohad only seen picture. >> it's not a walk in the park. >> reporter: so they made the long drive in fresh fallen snow, and then began the long hike. you have to really want to pay your respects way up here. >> mikey, you don't know how much i appreciate you come joining me up here, okay? i mean that. >> it's cool. >> reporter: once there, the solitude is part of the experience, as is leaving a token of military service. after a quiet pause, it was time to go, and they, like everyone, left soldierstone to its isolation. think the colonel would be proud? >> oh, i'm sure he is proud

right now. i think a lot of people are proud. >>

we end this laugh hour in texas, where a group of veterans who finished their service to the country have now mobilized to serve their community. janet shamlian has this morning's profiles in service. >> reporter: they have little experience with drills and dirt, but are experts in working as a team. 60-plus veterans are spending their saturday serving once again, providing long overdue

maintenance for which there is no budget at a houston elementary school in need. principal treasure west. >> we just don't have the manpower to get some of the small projects done. >> good job, you guys. thank you. >> i worked for a living and i work full-time. this isn't my second job. this is something i want to do. >> reporter: carlos miller is a volunteer with "the mission continues." in more than 50 city, thousands of veterans report for duty, this time in the communities where they live. marina acosta and husband abel are navy veterans who brought their children to help, hoping to fuel a passion to serve. do you ever think i've already served. it's someone else's turn? >> oh, no, no. i'll probably serve until the day i die. >> reporter: every project is different. veterans build picnic tables and landscaped a garden at a women's center in east los angeles. what's similar is the therapeutic nature of the call to action. you worked with your hands

today. >> i sure did. >> reporter: but it sounds like it's your heart that brought you here. >> yes, it is. it's my heart that brought me here. because if you can -- the way i feel emotional right now, those people feel the same way every time we get together. it's about being together. >> reporter: carlos says the work has given him newfound purpose and friends who are as close as family. it's why he's volunteered more than 50 times. and how many more? >> it's going to be a long time before i stop doing this, because i really enjoy this. it really fills my heart. >> reporter: our nation's best still dedicated to duty. >> thank you! >> reporter: janet shamlian, cbs news, houston. >> and that's the "overnight news" for this tuesday. for some of you, the news continues. for others, check back with us a little later for the morning news, and of course "cbs this morning." from the broadcast center in new york city, i'm tanya rivero.