Today’s video, https://youtu.be/vb5R-b0v1_I, is the last of my visits to the Fort Ethan Allen Cemetery in Colchester, Vermont. In this video, you’ll see what appears to be fresh graves in some areas when, in fact, there’s not a fresh grave in that area at all. I tried to avoid stepping on them. When I did, most were hard areas, except for one, which was so soft, my foot sank a little bit!
“The last cemetery under the auspices of the Colchester Cemetery Advisory Committee is the Fort Ethan Allen Cemetery, on College Parkway next to the old Fanny Allen Hospital. This burial ground remains well-groomed, perhaps not as meticulously as it was when there were 5,000 troops at the Fort, but the grass is cut, the headstones are clean and straight, the trees are well placed and small American flags wave atop the gravestones of those who have served in the military.
It is quiet except for the passing traffic, and it is still within sight of its namesake, Fort Ethan Allen. The military cemetery began when the Fort came into being in the late 1890s. It remained a military cemetery until 1963, when the Fort was decommissioned, and the General Services Administration transferred ownership to the town. It is no longer necessary for one to be in the military to gain admission to the cemetery. Colchester veterans pay $450 for a plot in any of the town’s cemeteries.
Committee members place American flags on all the gravesites of veterans in the town cemeteries, generally by Memorial Day every year, but a lone volunteer faithfully performs this duty at the Fort Ethan Allen cemetery. “-https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2018/06/30/history-space-cemeteries-colchester/36522643/
