Letterkenny hosts only cemetery tours this year
CHAMBERSBURG -- Letterkenny Army Depot is offering a tour of the eight cemeteries located behind its fence.
The cemeteries and a few foundations are all that remain of places such as Maple Grove and Keefer’s store. Few of the original residents are still alive.
Rural communities in much of Letterkenny Township were uprooted 75 years ago when the Army took 20,400 acres for an ammunition storage area. About 1,000 people in 250 families were forced to move by April 1, 1942, and the Army created the Letterkenny Ordinance Depot.
The depot traditionally holds the cemetery tour on Armed Forces Day in conjunction with an open house at Letterkenny. The depot will not have a public celebration this year on Armed Forces Day, the third Saturday in May, according to depot spokeswoman Janet Gardner.
The tour of the cemeteries located in the Letterkenny Munitions Center is scheduled from 8 to 11 a.m. on Friday, May 19. The tour will begin from the parking lot in front of the Letterkenny Army Depot headquarters, Building 10.
Thirty-seven people went on the cemetery tour last year, Gardner said. Cemetery sites include the Besore family, Schlichter family, Pleasant Hill Brethren-in-Christ Church, Boyer Farm family, Pleasant Hill Mennonite Church, Upper Strausburg Mennonite Church, Old Order York Brethren and the German Lutheran (Zion German Lutheran) Church.
Advanced registration for the cemetery tour is required. Contact the Letterkenny Public Affairs Office at 717-267-9741 or 717-267-5482 no later than Tuesday, May 16.
Space is limited, and no one under the age of 18 years old will be permitted on the tour. Persons wishing to participate in the tour must be willing to provide personal identification information at the time of registration in order to be processed through the depot’s security system.
Letterkenny Army Depot is planning a 75th anniversary celebration on July 17, 75 years to the day after Col. John K. Clement arrived as the installation's first commanding officer.