Fort Snelling

I have this thing for cemeteries.  Weird, right?  There's just something about them that peaks my interest.  Maybe it's the history buff in me but I'm always so interested to find out the story behind the people resting there. 

On my way to pick Denise up from the airport last month, I decided to take a detour. Fort Snelling National Cemetery runs along the route to the airport.  Needless to say, it was simply breathtaking.

 

The fort/cemetery is located at the juncture of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers. The US military built a fort back in the early 1800's. Now, it is home to over 180,000 soldiers as their final resting place.

 

What hit me the hardest was the inscriptions on the stones.  I wasn't expecting the soldiers' spouses to be buried with them much less to see their names carved into the stones too.