Utah's new veterans cemetery receives federal funding to pay for its first phase

WASHINGTON TERRACE, Weber County — The development of a planned veterans cemetery in Utah is advancing, now with funding from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The federal agency's National Cemetery Administration announced it awarded $16.5 million for two Utah projects, to help establish the Northern Utah Veterans Cemetery in Washington Terrace and to expand the Utah Veterans Cemetery and Memorial Park in Bluffdale.

The new cemetery is expected to cover 75 acres on a 100-acre parcel of state-controlled land in Weber County, according to the department. It would have the capacity to serve 4,000 veterans and family members in the region.

The grant of $14.7 million for the new cemetery will help fund the construction of administrative and maintenance buildings, as well as other supporting infrastructure, 500 pre-placed crypts, 600 recessed spaces in which to place urns of cremated remains, known as columbarium niches, and 550 in-ground gravesites, the agency said in a news release.

"These grants enable the states to better serve Veterans and their families where they live," Veterans Affairs Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Sam Brown said in the release. "Because of this program, more than 94% of Veterans living in the United States have access to the burial benefits they have earned at a cemetery within 75 miles of where they live."

Development of the Washington Terrace cemetery may start in 2027, according to KSL, with the construction of the first phase lasting about a year. The state is expected to pay for its maintenance.

Almost $2 million was awarded to the Bluffdale cemetery and memorial park, which serves over 102,000 veterans and their family members, to build 1,400 columbarium niches and to fund landscape and irrigation work.

More than 44,700 veterans and family members were interred in cemeteries that have had funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2025, the agency said.

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