Lebanon Cemetery, Apple Valley, Minnesota

My blog friend Roy is faithful in his treks to the local cemetery. He has beautiful posts about family names, stories about the possible people buried there, and such artistic ivy. These pictures are for you, Roy, as I attempt to do one of our local cemeteries justice.

The Lebanon Cemetery is located at the corner of two now busy roads, but it was not always so. The original cemetery was 2 acres of wooded hill amid the farmer fields and established during the civil war. The earliest recorded burial was May 25, 1861, and the stones of these first burials stand at the northwest most corner of the lot.
In May of 1997, Apple Valley voters approved acquisition of the cemetery and a bond referendum to obtain an additional eight acres of land. Transfer of the original two acres of the cemetery was made to the City in December 1998, and the additional land was purchased, and in 1998 went through some extensive remodeling.
Apple Valley was not always the name of our fair city. We were a township called Lebanon first, but the mayor in 1970's decided he liked the fair city in California with the same name very much. Apple trees grew on the west side of town, and many street names then and now have apple references.

Almost unheard of, this cemetery is owned and maintained by the city. The memorial is a very new addition to our only non-church cemetery. It is a public place to be buried, no questions asked. I really like that idea, that we can all become one, across denominations or no affiliation.
The pictures began as I was trying to capture the beauty of the lilac bushes across the road, and stumbled across the firefighter. There are more by another photographer here

Pictures coming soon, but it's been raining for over one week. Because the ground is holy to me, I can not push myself to trod its mossy mounds in the wet.