(Do not mail items to this address)
803 Sawmill Creek Road
Sitka, AK 99835
Phone: (907) 384-7075
FAX: (907) 384- 7111

Office Hours:
Monday thru Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Closed federal holidays.

Visitation Hours:
Open daily from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Weekends and Holidays: Open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m

Directions from nearest airport:
From Sitka Airport cross the bridge and turn right onto Sawmill Creek Road. Travel 1 1/2 miles to the intersection of Sawmill Creek Road and Observatory Way. The cemetery is located at the intersection.

The remote Sitka National Cemetery is located half a mile east of the center of town and is dominated by the natural beauty of the mountains and waters of Sitka Bay. The only access to Sitka is by air, marine highway or weekly ferry from Seattle, Wash.

The Kiksadi Clan of the Tlingit Indians had lived in and around Sitka for centuries before the Russians or Americans set foot on the island's rocky shore. Choosing the seaward side of the island they named Shee, the Tlingits called their settlement Shee Atika, meaning "people on the outside of Shee." The name Sitka is a contraction of the term.

Gen. Jefferson C. Davis laid out the cemetery at Sitka in the late 19th century. Most of the interments were soldiers and sailors from the Marine base and Naval hospital. Subsequently, the land was loaned to the U.S. Department of the Interior as a home for indigent prospectors. From 1912 until 1921, the cemetery was practically abandoned and a dense growth of trees and underbrush grew up almost obscuring the site. In 1920, representatives of the Sitka American Legion post wrote to the Secretary of War calling attention to the neglected cemetery and asking for remedial action; they were told no funds were available. In 1921, they appealed to the Secretary of the Navy, who allocated $1,200 toward reconditioning the site.

In 1922, the Secretary of the Navy turned the issue of cemetery maintenance over to the War Department. In June 1924, upon the recommendation of the Alaska governor and the American Legion, President Calvin Coolidge signed an executive order designating the site Sitka National Cemetery. Since then, there have been several acreage modifications: in 1925, a revision of the executive order reduced the acreage from 3.98 acres to 1.19 acres; in 1957, Sheldon Jackson Junior College donated approximately one acre; a donation of 0.20 acres was made in 1959 by the Board of National Missions of the Presbyterian Church of the United States; and the Department of Interior transferred approximately two acres in the mid-1980s. Sitka National Cemetery currently encompasses 4.3 acres.

One of the more notable burials at Sitka is John Green Brady, governor of the Territory of Alaska from 1897 to 1906. Brady had come to Sitka as a Presbyterian missionary and later became commissioner and registrar of the Land Office, where he served until the president appointed him governor. He died in Sitka of a stroke on Dec. 17, 1918. In fall 1924, Brady's wife returned to the territory and placed a large boulder over his grave.

The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 7, 2012.