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100:, it is one of the two national cemeteries in the state of West Virginia, both of which are located in Grafton. After it was determined that the 3 acres (1.2 ha) Grafton cemetery had inadequate space for new burials, West Virginia groups began petitioning for a new national cemetery for the state. The federal government appropriated the site of the former
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had limited free space for new burials. A 1975 study of the cemetery determined that the remaining unused space was either too steep or too costly to use. West
Virginia veteran groups such as the West Virginia United Veterans National Cemetery Committee campaigned state and federal government
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members were unable to locate the remains. In 1947, the three men were declared dead and their remains unrecoverable by a military board. The board was unaware that an Army group had removed the remains and had them buried unidentified at
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The cemetery contains the
Industrial School for Boys monument, a granite memorial erected in 1992 in memory of the residents of the West Virginia Industrial School for Boys who were buried at the cemetery between 1890 and 1939.
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were relocated to the
National Cemetery after having been lost for 66 years. Harris and two other American soldiers—
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and the state resulted in the selection of a 58-acre (23 ha) site that was part of the
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U.S. Geological Survey
Geographic Names Information System: West Virginia National Cemetery
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for the new cemetery, which was dedicated and opened in 1987.
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Donald D. Owens—were killed on
October 9, 1944 when their
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