Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery is full of history and short on room

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - When the city of Anchorage was established, President Woodrow Wilson also set aside 22 acres of land for its cemetery.

Now, it’s called The Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery.

Two sections of the cemetery are set aside for members of the military: the American Legion section and The Veteran’s of Foreign Wars section, but military markers can be found throughout the cemetery.

At 111 years old, there are about 14,000 people buried here, and the cemetery is almost out of space for traditional burials in it’s public tracts. It expanded to its reserve land in the 90s and built a Columbarium Wall in 2003. Only space remains for urn burials. The exceptions are in the fraternal tracts — like the Moose and the Pioneers — the military tracts, and the religious tracts

The solution for the lack of space would be more land. But the cemetery is bordered by major roads and buildings.

There are two other cemeteries in the Anchorage area. The National Cemetery on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and the nonprofit-run cemetery Angelus Memorial Park Cemetery, Inc.

A good time to visit The Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery is on Memorial Day while the graves are decorated with American Flags.

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