Black Hills National Cemetery

According to this article from the Black Hills Pioneer, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke announced last week that President Trump had signed the bill to expand the Black Hills National Cemetery.  The cemetery, located on the western edge of South Dakota, would be expanded from 105 acres to over 300 acres.

South Dakota U.S. Representative Kristi Noem first introduced this legislation in 2015.  It did not pass both the House and Senate until earlier this year.  According to Zinke the current footprint of the cemetery only allowed enough land fo 30-40 years of burials but the Black Hills National Cemetery Boundary Expansion Act will push the useful interment life of the cemetery out into the next century.

According to the article, the Black Hills National Cemetery opened in 1948 and conducts about three burials a day.  Veterans dating back to the Indian War era up to current veterans are buried there.

Funeral Director Daily take:  It has been a busy year for South Dakota’s veterans as far as cemeteries go this year.  Here is a previous article that we had done at Funeral Director Daily which illuminated the cause of the state’s eastern residents to get a veteran’s cemetery near their living area also.  The South Dakota state legislature helped provide a path for getting that done.

We also ran an article earlier this year on how President Trump believes that all veterans should have a national cemetery within 75 miles of their home and what he is doing to try to expand those opportunities.  You can read that article here.

[wpforms id=”436″ title=”true” description=”true”]