Florida National Cemetery in Sumter County, Florida

Photograph: Florida National Cemetery downsized.jpg by Marque1313 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Restored from the credited Wikimedia Commons file, normalized to the consistent attraction-card frame and converted to WebP by 1stFlorida.com. Portrait originals retain their complete composition over a softly blurred extension of the same photograph.

Sumter County attraction

Florida National Cemetery

Sumter County · Central Florida

The national cemetery sits on 512.9 acres inside Withlacoochee State Forest, about fifty miles north of Tampa near Bushnell.

ABOUT THIS PLACE

The Department of Veterans Affairs opened it for burials in 1988, the fourth national cemetery in Florida, and it has since become one of the busiest in the country, with roughly 180,000 interments. The grounds were carved out of the state forest, so the sections are bordered by pine rather than by city streets, and the quiet is part of what people remember about a visit. Four men who received the Medal of Honor are buried here: William R. Charette, Duane E. Dewey, James R. Hendrix and Franklin D. Miller. A carillon was dedicated in 1993 and sounds through the day. The Memorial Pathway carries plaques and monuments placed by veterans' organizations, forty-seven of them by 2003, and a Gold Star Families Memorial Monument was added in 2021. Committal services are held in covered shelters rather than at the graveside. Eligibility, scheduling and headstone questions go through the cemetery office or the national scheduling line. The grounds are open to visitors every day of the year, and the administrative office keeps weekday hours

GETTING THERE

Get Directions ↗Official Website ↗

MOVING TO SUMTER COUNTY?Fourteen services. One business each.

Attorneys, movers, insurance, title companies, roofers and nine more — one listed business per service in Sumter County.

See local help in Sumter County →

Keep comparing

Return to the Things to Do choices in Sumter County.

Back to Sumter County