Elmwood Walks: Memorial Day History

Thousands of service members are buried at Elmwood going all the way back to the Revolutionary War. Elmwood is also the site of a Civil War soldiers lot and a Firemen's Fund Memorial and burial lot where the Detroit Firemen's Fund hosts a biannual Memorial Day remembrance event.

On this tour, we'll visit the graves of service members, firefighters and police officers who died in the line of duty, share stories about the history of Detroit's police and fire departments, and learn about the origin and evolution of Memorial Day. Historic Elmwood Foundation Director Amy Elliott Bragg co-leads this tour with Bill McGraw, a journalist in Detroit for more than 50 years, mainly at the Free Press. He is the creator of The Detroit Almanac and "The Quotations of Mayor Coleman A. Young" and covered the fire department when he worked at the Freep.

This free tour will last about 2 hours, mostly on paved roads, but there will be some gentle hills and we will venture onto the grass.

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Host or Publisher Elmwood Cemetery