Fort Snelling National Cemetery

Fort Snelling National Cemetery
Memorial Day 2018 at Fort Snelling National Cemetery

Details
Established	1939
Location	Fort Snelling Unorganized Territory, Minnesota
Country	United States
Coordinates	44°52′15″N 93°13′11″W / 44.87083°N 93.21972°W / 44.87083; -93.21972
Type	Public
Size	436.3 acres (176.6 ha)
No. of graves	>256,000
Website	Official
Find a Grave	Fort Snelling National Cemetery

Fort Snelling National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located in the Fort Snelling Unorganized Territory adjacent to the historic fort and Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport. It is the only National Cemetery in Minnesota. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, it covers 436.3 acres (176.6 ha), and as of August, 2023 had over 256,000 interments. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.

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History

Fort Snelling 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 146 acres (59 ha) to the cemetery; another 177 acres (0.72 km²) 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;^[1] volunteers placed 200,000 memorial flags in 2019.^[2]

Notable interments

Medal of Honor recipients

Second Lieutenant Donald E. Rudolph Sr., US Army, Medal of Honor recipient for action in the Battle of Luzon in World War II
Captain Richard E. Fleming, USMC, for action at Midway in World War II (cenotaph, body was not recovered)
Private First Class Richard E. Kraus, USMC, for action at Peleliu in World War II
Private First Class James D. LaBelle, USMC, for action at the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II
Captain Arlo Olson, US Army, for action in Italy during World War II
Staff Sergeant Robert J. Pruden, US Army, for action in the Vietnam War
First Lieutenant Richard Keith Sorenson, USMC, for action on Kwajalein during World War II
Captain George H. Mallon, US Army, for actions in France during World War I
Machinist Mate First Class Oscar F. Nelson, US Navy, for heroism aboard the USS Bennington during peacetime

Other

George John Weiss Jr Recipient of the Presidential Citizens Medal and Founder of the Fort Snelling Memorial Rifle Squad

Johnny Blanchard, baseball player
Thomas Edward Burnett Jr, United Airlines Flight 93 passenger
Bob Casey, baseball announcer
Mark H. Gehan, Mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota, Minnesota state representative, and lawyer, World War I
Frank Eugene Hook, US Congressman, World War I veteran
Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, pioneer of modern open-heart surgery
Corporal Charles W. Lindberg, last surviving member of the Marines who flag raised the flag on Iwo Jima during World War II
Ernest Lundeen, US Congressman
John Mariucci, hockey coach, member of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame
Hal Scott, sports announcer
Bruce P. Smith, 1941 football player, Heisman Trophy winner
David C. Sutherland III, game artist^[3]
Major Tim Vakoc, US Army Chaplain mortally wounded in Mosul during the Iraq War
Private Tracie McBride, rape and murder victim^[4]
John Clay Walker, American journalist, tortured and murdered in Mexico by members of the Guadalajara Cartel
Jim Klobuchar, Minnesota journalist and author