Thursday, June 17, 2010

Discovery of gravestones in stream at Arlington National Cemetery

As I was driving to work this morning, I heard a story on the news about some old gravestones being discovered in a stream bed at Arlington National Cemetery. At least one of the stones had a name on it, but the name is not being released. At some point the Cemetery had adopted the practice of removing names from discarded grave stones, grinding the stones up, and sending them to a recycling center. It is not clear whether the recently found stones predate that policy. Apparently the new policy was put in place when it was discovered that some people would remove the stones to be used in their own yards. The stones may have been used to shore up the stream.

More information on this story and previous revelations of incorrect burials and mislabeled headstones can be found here.