Name: Redwood Area Alano Club
Start: 2023-10-01T19:00:00-05:00
End: 2023-10-01T20:00:00-05:00
Location: Alano Club

Hundreds attended the new veterans cemetery dedication in Redwood Falls Saturday afternoon. (KLGR photo by Joshua Dixon)

On a very warm Saturday afternoon this past weekend, hundreds of people turned out to the official dedication of the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery – Redwood Falls.

What led the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs to choose Redwood Falls as the site of the state’s fourth veterans cemetery several years ago? At the ceremony, KLGR News Director Joshua Dixon asked several of the people who made it happen:

Brad Lindsay, Interim Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs, said Redwood County was a central location for southwest Minnesota, with 14 other counties within 75 miles.

Marty Caraway, former Redwood County Veterans Services Officer, is now based in Washington DC in the Veterans Benefits Administration. When he in Redwood County, he was one of the people who played a big part in finding the specific 81 acres of land that have been transformed into the cemetery:

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, after the dedication, said a big part of what made the Redwood County stand out from the others was the level of cooperation between all the different levels of government and volunteers:

Dave Swantek, Deputy Director of Memorial Affairs, said there have already been several burials before the cemetery was officially dedicated this past weekend: