Fort Snelling National Cemetery


Fort Snelling National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located at Fort Snelling just south of Minneapolis in Hennepin County, Minnesota, adjacent to Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport. It is the older of the two national cemeteries in the state. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, it encompasses, and as of 2020 had over 241,000 interments. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.

History

was a frontier fort first established in 1819. Its original purpose was to keep the peace on what was then the western frontier. During the American Civil War it served as a recruiting camp area for Minnesota volunteers. The cemetery was officially established in 1870.
In 1937, the citizens of St. Paul, petitioned Congress to construct a National Cemetery in the area. Two years later, the new plot was dedicated, and the burials from the original post cemetery were moved to it. In 1960, the Fort Snelling Air Force Station transferred to the cemetery; another were acquired in 1961, expanding the cemetery to its current size.
There was a tradition of placing a flag on every grave on Memorial Day, but as the cemetery grew, the staff was forced to stop. In 2017, the nonprofit Flags for Fort Snelling revived the tradition; volunteers placed 200,000 memorial flags in 2019.

Notable interments

Medal of Honor recipients

The cemetery contains one British Commonwealth war grave, of a Royal Canadian Air Force airman of World War II.