South Dakota's first national cemetery

Located near Sturgis, South Dakota, at Pleasant Valley Drive 20901, Black Hills National Cemetery serves as a final resting place for military veterans and their family members. Established in 1948 and originally named Fort Meade National Cemetery, the site was created to provide burial space for an aging veteran population from World War I and other previous conflicts, as well as for military burials following World War II. Over 29,000 interments have taken place here since its founding.

The cemetery features an Avenue of Flags leading to a committal shelter where memorial services and events are held. While it primarily hosts lawn graves, three stone columbaria were built in 2010 to allow for the interment of ashes. The grounds also include memorial structures for veterans of the Korean War and the Vietnam War. It was renamed Black Hills National Cemetery on November 11, 1949, to avoid confusion with both the nearby site and Fort Meade in Maryland.

As the other two national cemeteries in South Dakota are closed to new burials, Black Hills National Cemetery is currently the only one accepting new interments. The cemetery is open daily between sunrise and sunset. It maintains uniform marble upright headstones, each weighing 230 pounds and standing 42 inches tall, with a policy to maintain no more than 1/8 of an inch variance between each stone.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons