Senate Committee passes bill to transfer nine historic cemeteries away from Forest Service

A Senate bill that would transfer the ownership of nine historic cemeteries in the Black Hills from the U.S. Forest Service to local communities has passed the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Sens. Tim Johnson and John Thune introduced the bill earlier this year and it’s now headed to the main Senate floor. Johnson says transferring the cemeteries to the local communities that have been long maintaining and caring for them makes a lot of sense. He says the bill is a permanent solution. Thune says the current arrangement causes headaches for the caretaking communities that have managed the cemeteries for generations and places an unnecessary liability on the Forest Service. An identical bill was introduced in the House by U.S. Rep. Kristi Noem. AP

Here's an excerpt from The Westerner in 2005:

Ghost town fights to bury its dead A dispute over ownership of a cemetery in a Montana ghost town has landed in Congress, where one of Montana's senators is urging the federal government to surrender the land. But the U.S. Forest Service, which owns the property in the tiny mountain town of Elkhorn, says it's not inclined to give up the title without getting fair market value. The old ghost town in Jefferson County has just a few aging families left, and a number of them want to be buried in the cemetery _ legally _ next to their ancestors on the tranquil site overlooking a valley. People were buried in Elkhorn before Montana became a state or the Forest Service was established. But the cemetery became Forest Service land somewhere along the way, no one is sure quite when, and federal law prohibits human burials on public land. That hasn't stopped residents from burying loved ones there over the years, however. Locals estimate up to 90 people, maybe more in unmarked graves, have been interred in the last century or so. Resident and rancher Fred Bell, 71, whose grandparents, parents and son are buried in the cemetery, says he won't stop pushing the government to legally allow burials. He was among those who approached Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., last year after an unsuccessful effort spanning 15 years...

There are many stories of historical cemeteries being located on federal land, creating problems for both families and the Forest Service.  One Forest Service publication, Wild Cemeteries?, even discusses the challenges of managing a cemetery in a Wilderness area.

So if you thought when you were dead and gone your problems with the feds was over, you better think again.