Highest point in Alabama will become final resting site for Old Glory
Published 5:12 pm Saturday, December 4, 2021
The highest point in Alabama, Cheaha Mountain, will soon become a repository for the ashes of retired American flags.
A vault called “Old Glory Lookout” has been added to Cheaha State Park in Delta and will dedicated on Tuesday, the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. It will hold the remains of old U.S. flags, which are supposed to be destroyed by fire.
A statement from Alabama’s state park system said the container consists of a steel vault encased in quartzite that was cut by members of the Civil Conservation Corps, a New Deal program formed in the 1930s under then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The vault is on the eastern slope of a ridge near a public boardwalk.
The project is a joint effort between an American Legion post in Atmore and the park, located about 80 miles (128 kilometers) east of Birmingham. Paul Chason, adjutant for the American Legion post, said military, veteran and civic organizations will be able to inter flag ashes at the site.
“We believe it is the first of its kind in America,” he said.
Flags that were retired and burned during a ceremony on the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, will be placed in the vault during the ceremony on Tuesday.