Honoring the fallen at Yellowstone

Millions of visitors are drawn to Yellowstone National Park each year by geysers such as Old Faithful and wildlife including bison, grizzly bears, wolves and trout. Each Memorial Day, however, a small but patriotic contingent is lured in for a different reason: a unique remembrance service at Gardiner Cemetery at Tinker’s Hill.

American Legion Post 118 in Gardiner, Mont., has hosted the annual memorial service at the cemetery, in the northwest corner of Yellowstone, for the past seven years. It is the only privately run part of the nation’s first national park, which was established in 1872.

“This day is sacred as we remember those who have gone before us,” Post 118 Commander Rick Wallen said, opening the ceremony. “We honor the memory of those who gave their lives in the service of our country and of those others who have dropped their burdens by the wayside of life and have gone to their eternal rest.”

Aaron Schmid, who is serving with the Army National Guard, was among the more than 50 people who attended the ceremony. “There is no better place for me to be today to give honor to the guys who have gone before me,” he said. “There is a lot of military in my family so it’s appropriate to do this.”

During the ceremony, Schmid's thoughts turned to his grandfather, who died a couple of years ago.

“I was remembering my grandfather,” he said of Lloyd Schmid. “He was a retired lieutenant colonel who served in Vietnam. He was a huge inspiration for me to enlist in the first place. I was also remembering training with my buddies. A couple of them are getting ready to deploy to Saudi Arabia. It’s a reminder of how short a soldier’s life can be.”

Lori Wilkinson knows that all too well. Her nephew, James Linder, was an Apache helicopter pilot. “He went to Afghanistan and had no incidents there but was killed on a mountain in Utah in a training flight in 2007,” she said.

Wilkinson, who lives in Gardiner (population: 875 as of the 2010 census) brought her grandchildren — 5-year-old Aiden and 4-year-old Avery — to the ceremony. “It is important for them to see this stuff from early on,” she said. “It’s great to have something like this in a small community. It’s great that this group of guys keeps this place going. And it’s nice to come out and support it.”

The cemetery, which dates back to the 1880s, holds about 220 graves. There are 28 graves marked for veterans from the Civil War, Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War and Vietnam War. During the ceremony, a special bouquet was placed at the gravesite of James McBride of Pennsylvania, who served with Troop M, 1st Cavalry Division, to protect Yellowstone in the 19th century and later became the first chief ranger of the national park.

Post 118 also placed American flags at each of the veterans’ graves.

“Our group has always come out and placed flags on the veterans’ graves here,” Wallen said. “And now with the Memorial Day service, the town has started to recognize the Legion for doing the work out here at the cemetery. I feel like we have made some progress over the last few years.”

In 2009, the Legion post was deeded the cemetery from the local Fraternal Order of Eagles group. Since then, Legion members have rebuilt the fence, cleaned up the grounds and built a path for easier access. “I don’t think there was any routine maintenance for the first 60 or 70 years, but we try to come out and tidy things up,” Wallen said.

The work has been noted.

“We are honored to help The American Legion take care of Gardiner Cemetery,” said Dan Wenk, Yellowstone superintendent. “The park has a relatively unique history with the military because the Army managed the park and protected its resources during the late 1800s and early 1900s — before the National Park Service was established.”

The cemetery sits on 1 ½ acres in the foothills of the Sepulcher Mountains between the Old Yellowstone Trail and the Yellowstone River. Sagebrush, cactus and rocks are mixed in with the gravesites on the rolling hillside. Bears, bighorn sheep, bison, coyotes and other animals are known to frequent the range surrounding the cemetery.

The Memorial Day ceremony included the playing of Taps, a moment of silence and an honor guard firing blanks — the only time firearms may be discharged at Yellowstone.

Wallen closed the event by issuing a call for remembrance.

“Our nation is assembled today to honor its historic dead,” he said. “It is because of them that our lives are free and our nation lives in freedom. When peril threatened, their country called. They left their paths of peace to spring to arms, to make their bodies barricades against our nation’s foes. They fought for us, and for us they fell. Let us not forget the loved ones left behind. Tears or words of sympathy cannot bring back the comfort of those loving hands. We are all debtors to them for what they have given. On this Memorial Day, let’s pledge anew our commitment to patriotic service.”