Fort Lyon National Cemetery

GPS Coordinates: 38.083580, -103.129277
County: Bent
Record count: 2,776

Ownership: National Cemetery Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Directions: From the city of Las Animas, CO, take US-50 eastbound and exit State Highway 183 (County Rd 15) to Fort Lyon. Entrance to the cemetery lies in the community center of Fort Lyon (at the intersection of (County Rd 15 & HH).

Background: Fort Lyon National Cemetery traces its roots to the former Fort Lyon military post—originally named Fort Wise in honor of Virginia’s governor and renamed for Union General Nathaniel Lyon early in the Civil War—which was relocated to its present site below the Purgatoire River in 1887.

After the Army abandoned the fort in 1897, the U.S. Navy opened a tuberculosis sanitarium on the grounds in 1906, and the first burials began in 1907 with the establishment of the Naval Hospital cemetery. The Veterans Bureau took over in 1922, followed by the Veterans Administration in 1930, under which the facility became a neuropsychiatry center; throughout this period, veterans (including Youayoshi Hosi, the first recorded veteran interred from the Spanish–American War) and even German POWs who died of tuberculosis were laid to rest there.

The site was officially transferred into the National Cemetery System in September 1973.

Transcriptions

We have 1 transcription for this cemetery.

• Veterans Affairs Database, compiled by Interment.net, April 17, 2025, (2,776 records)