National Cemetery main gate re-opens Monday

After six months, the main gate of Fort Scott National Cemetery will be re-opened Monday, Cemetery Technician Richard Wheeler said.

The main gate closed the week before Memorial Day as part of an overall renovation of the 150-year-old cemetery. About 50 percent of the original limestone rock was cleaned and re-used for the rebuilding project. New stone was obtained from around Redfield, Kan. Decatur Construction of Binford, Texas, did the work.

Roads and curbs were completed by Mission Construction of St. Paul, Kan.

Although the main gate is re-opening, the south gate will be temporarily closed while the road is resurfaced.

Wheeler said he thinks people will be glad the main gate is re-opening, because a lot of older people have relatives buried in the old section of the cemetery.

"It was kind of impossible for them to get to," Wheeler said. "... Now they will be able to park on the road and get to the gravesite."

The main gate opening comes in time for the Veterans Day ceremony, scheduled for 11 a.m., Nov. 11, on the south side of the flag pole at the National Cemetery. Keynote speaker will be Sgt. 1st Class Tate A. West of La Cygne, whose parents are buried at the cemetery. The program will remember and honor all military members who have, or are currently serving, the nation.

World War I -- known at the time as "The Great War" -- officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on Veterans Day, started as Armistice Day after World War I on June 28, 1919. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month -- Nov. 11, 1918, a news release from the Department of Veterans Affairs said.

A Congressional act approved May 13, 1938, made the Nov. 11 in each year a legal holiday. Armistice Day had primarily been a day set aside to honor Veterans of World War I. But following World War II and the Korean War, veterans service organizations urged Congress to amend the Act of 1938 by striking out the word "armistice" and inserting the word "veterans" in its place. With the approval of new legislation in 1954, Nov. 11 became a day to honor American veterans of all wars, the release said.