Cotton Fields to Hallowed Ground: North Alabama Veterans Cemetery on the Horizon

MADISON COUNTY, Ala. (WAFF) - Death is inevitable, and if you live in north Alabama, specifically, Madison County, your choices for interment may be limited.

Maple Hill Cemetery is the largest and oldest municipal cemetery in the state, but it is at capacity and no longer sells plots.

And for any of the 400,000 Alabama veterans who want to be buried in a nearby military cemetery, their choices are even fewer.

But change is in the air for those who served.

Cotton stalks stand here with their bolls waving in the wind on this beautiful, picturesque 150-acre stretch of farmland in northeast Madison County.

Next year, an American flag might stand in their place... and eventually, rows and rows of white headstones.

Limestone, Morgan, and Madison County veterans are “underserved” for burial benefits, per the federal government.

There is no state or even national veterans cemetery close to home.

“What the National Cemetery Administration tries to do is keep a national or state cemetery within 75 miles of every veteran in the state of Alabama or any state, for that matter, and there’s a void in that area,” said Jeff Newton, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs.

So, Commissioner Newton is accelerating a deal to establish a second state veterans cemetery here, in north Alabama. Six hours closer than the first and only Alabama Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Spanish Fort.

“We just set contracts in place to do an independent appraisal and to do the environmental assessment, and to do the survey. Once we get the green light there, we are prepared to move ahead with the purchase of the property,” Newton said.

“What makes this land so special? Its location. Well, we wanted to have something in North Alabama that was going to be pristine. It’s not going to be overpopulated with residential areas or other developments,” said Larry Vannoy, Alabama Veterans Affairs Cemetery Committee.

Larry Vannoy is the Chairman of the Cemetery Commission for Alabama Veterans Affairs.

“It’s beautiful. It’s very hard to find a large tract of land that looks like this,” Vannoy said.

Vannoy says this 150-acre parcel is a half-mile by half-mile - three times larger than the Veterans Cemetery in Spanish Fort and capable of holding 150,000 burial sites eventually, but starting out with 7,000.

It will also be considered a 200-year-old cemetery.

The plots are open to honorably-discharged veterans, their spouses, and dependents free of charge, including those in the National Guard.

A columbarium to entomb cremated remains will also be built, along with a scattering garden, and much more.

“If everything goes well, we purchase the property. The next step is to get an architect and engineer firm hired to do some design work, then hopefully, by the end of the summer of 2026, this time next year, we should be turning dirt. That’s our goal,” Newton said.

And on that timeline, the first funeral here could be two and a half years away.

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