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Evergreen Cemetery Association 1105 3rd Ave NE Brainerd, MN 56401  Contact Us = Show in Google Maps Visit us on Facebook |
Hours Of Operation Introduction Records Donations Annual Meeting Related Links |
Evergreen Cemetery
Memorial Gardens Cemetery Columbaria Options  Memorial Day Ceremony Brochures and Guides Directory of the Dead Maps / How To Find A Burial Site | ||||||
| May 23, 2025 |  |
Updated regulations for Grave Decorations have been posted at the vehicle entry gates for Evergreen and Memorial Gardens Cemeteries. A printable version is available for download from our Brochures and Guides page (see menu, above). |
| Apr 10, 2025 | |
The online Directory of the Dead monthly update has been completed. |
| Jan 01, 2025 | |
More details on Charitable Contributions and QCDs have been added to the Donations section. |
| July 19, 2024 | |
The 2024 Annual Meeting was held on Wednesday, July 17. Click on the Annual Meeting link in the menu for further details. |
| Jun 03, 2024 | |
A link to the 2024 Annual Letter has been added in the Donations section. |
| May 13, 2024 | |
The Board of Trustees is pleased to announce the hiring of our new Superintendent, Thomas McCartan. He brings years of cemetery experience with him and we look forward to a long and productive relationship. |
| Dec 28, 2023 | |
A link to the 2023 Annual Letter Thanksgiving Update has been added in the Donations section. |
| Oct 31, 2023 | |
We are pleased to announce the addition of a second Columbarium at Evergreen Memorial Gardens. See the updated Columbaria Options link in the main menu for details, |
| July 19, 2023 | |
The 2023 Annual Meeting was held on Wednesday, July 19. Click on the Annual Meeting link in the menu for further details. |
| Jun 20, 2022 | |
A strong storm on Monday evening that caused widespread damage throughout the Brainerd Lakes Area damaged or blew down over 30 trees in Evergreen Cemetery. |
| Oct 10, 2021 | |
Information about donating via Qualified Charitable Contributions from an IRA has been added to the Donations section. |
| July 21, 2021 | |
The 2021 Annual Meeting was held on Tuesday, July 20. Click on the Annual Meeting link in the menu for further details. |
| May 30, 2020 | |
Evergreen Cemetery was recently vandalized when at least 24 monuments were toppled. You can see more in our Monument Vandalism May 30, 2020 Facebook album (you do not need a Facebook account to view this album). |
| May 16, 2020 | |
Memorial Day hours have been announced. |
| Jan 02, 2020 | |
Karen Lentz has officially retired after 8½ years as Executive Director. Dede Tollefson is the new Executive Director of the Evergreen Cemetery Association. Welcome, Dede! |
| July 30, 2019 | |
The 2019 Annual Meeting was held on Tuesday July 23. Click on the Annual Meeting link in the menu for further details. |
| Mar 29, 2019 | |
The Lot Owner's Guide and the Rules & Regulations brochures have been updated. |
| Oct 25, 2018 | |
The Board of Trustees welcomes new member Terry Thorkelson. He replaces the retiring Conrad Bye, to whom the Board expresses its appreciation for his many years of service. |
| Aug 13, 2018 | |
Over 30 people participated in the Brainerd History Week cemetery walking tour on August 11, led by John Van Essen and Duane Blanck featuring WW I veterans and nurses. |
| July 30, 2018 | |
The 2018 Annual Meeting was held on Tuesday July 24. |
| May 26, 2018 | |
READER OPINION: A letter to the editor from Duane Blanck about our staffing cuts and thanking volunteers for the work that they do was published in the Dispatch. |
| May 18, 2018 | |
Memorial Day hours have been announced. |
| Apr 16, 2018 | |
Big snowstorm over the weekend! Spring will be a little late this year. |
| July 18, 2017 | |
The 2017 Annual Meeting was held on Monday July 17. |
| June 01, 2017 | |
Our Internet Service Provider, CTC, is discontinuing website hosting for internet customers. So we have moved and we now have our own domain name. New URL - same great content: http://www.evergreencemeterybrainerd.com/ |
| May 22, 2017 | |
Updated regulations for Grave Decorations have been posted at the vehicle entry gates for Evergreen and Memorial Gardens Cemeteries. A printable version is available for download from our Brochures and Guides page (see menu, above). |
| Apr. 17, 2017 | |
The Board of Trustees welcomes new member Susan Koering to the Board. |
| July 18, 2016 | |
The 2016 Annual Meeting was held on Monday July 18. |
| June 18, 2016 | |
Over 40 people participated in the Brainerd History Week cemetery walking tour led by John Van Essen and Duane Blanck featuring residents with homes or businesses in Northeast Brainerd more than a century ago. |
| Sep. 28, 2015 | |
Executive Director Karen Lentz attended the Minnesota Association of Cemeteries annual convention September 23-25. |
| Aug. 24, 2015 | |
PRESS RELEASE - Annual meeting held; Don Crust retirement; New board member wanted. |
| July 21, 2015 | |
The 2015 Annual Meeting was held on Monday July 20. |
| July 12, 2015 | |
On Sunday evening, a supercell thunderstorm system swept through
the Brainerd area.Evergreen lost 28 trees, mostly in the Historic southernmost section of the cemetery. We have uploaded a Photo Album of the Storm Damage on our Facebook page (you do not need a Facebook account to view the album). |
| June 16, 2015 | |
The Evergreen Cemetery Association participated in Brainerd History Week 2015 by hosting a walking tour on June 16 featuring the gravesites of residents who lived in historic northside Brainerd homes more than a century ago. Over 40 walkers participated in tours led by Duane Blanck (photo at right) and John Van Essen. |
| June 15, 2015 | |
Bruce McComas has been appointed to the Board of Trustees. |
| May 23, 2015 | |
A web page for the 2014 History Walk has been added with links to the materials used and photographs of the event. |
| May 19, 2015 | |
Memorial Day hours have been announced. |
| Apr. 20, 2015 | |
We now have a web page for our Columbarium. See the menu, above. |
| Feb. 06, 2015 | |
PRESS RELEASE - Evergreen Cemetery Board of Trustees welcomes Blackwell-Kraft and seeks another. |
| Jan. 25, 2015 | |
Evergreen Cemetery was featured in the Jan. 21 New England Historic Genealogical Society newsletter. |
| Nov. 18, 2014 | |
Denise Blackwell-Kraft has been appointed to the Board of Trustees to replace retiring board member John Krueger. |
| Nov. 13, 2014 | |
PRESS RELEASE - Minnesota Association of Cemeteries elects Lentz as vice president. |
| Sep. 20, 2014 | |
Executive Director Karen Lentz attended the Minnesota Association of Cemeteries annual convention September 17-19. |
| July 21, 2014 | |
The annual meeting of the Evergreen Cemetery Association was held Monday, July 21, 2014. Gary Bluth was elected to replace retiring board member Robert Tusler. |
| June 19, 2014 | |
A "History Walk" tour conducted as part of 2014 Brainerd History Week events was well-attended despite the rainy conditions. |
| Feb. 22, 2014 | |
The Brainerd Daily Dispatch has a nice article about Superintendent Rusty Billman's 25 years of service to Evergreen Cemetery. |
| Jan. 02, 2013 | |
The 75th Anniversary Booklet produced in 1954 by the Association for the 75th Anniversary of Evergreen Cemetery's founding (complete with pictures) is now available online as a 3.7 MB PDF file. |
| Oct. 27, 2012 | |
Peter Wells organized for his Eagle Scout Project 40 volunteers to gather at Evergreen cemetery from 9 am until noon to clear off over 300 markers that had become obscured and unreadable over the many years the cemetery has been in operation. A heartfelt "Thank You" to all those who participated! (UPDATE: A 2012 Marker Cleaning Project webpage with more details and photos is now available.) |
| July 09, 2012 | |
Two amended plat maps have been located and uploaded: Evergreen 3rd Addition (includes blocks 47-48), and Garden of Devotion (has corrected block & lot numbers). See Related Links, below |
| May 28, 2012 | |
See selected photos from the 2012 Memorial Day Parade and Ceremony at Evergreen Cemetery. |
| Oct. 01, 2011 | |
The 2011 Winter issue of the Minnesota Association of Cemeteries Quarterly features an Interview with Executive Director Karen Lentz (220 KB PDF file). |
| Sep. 11, 2011 | |
Retired judge Fred Casey is our newest board member. See the complete list of board members on the Contact Us page. |
| June 15, 2011 | |
Barbara Gavin has begun her well-deserved retirement after nearly 40 years of managing the office at Evergreen Cemetery. We wish her a long and happy retirement! |
| Apr. 11, 2011 | |
Karen Lentz has been selected by the board of trustees to fill the newly-created Executive Director position. Karen will be working with secretary Barb Gavin (who is retiring this summer) and superintendent Rusty Billman. |
| May 18, 2010 | |
Notice to reclaim 50 unused plots has been published in the Brainerd Dispatch. |
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The Evergreen Cemetery Association owns and manages Evergreen Cemetery in Brainerd and the Memorial Gardens Cemetery just north of Brainerd. The Association has been in operation for over a century.
In 1870, the Northern Pacific Railway was building out its railroad system westward from Duluth. A settlement called "The Crossing" sprung up where the railroad crossed the Mississippi River and was incorporated as the City of Brainerd in 1871.
Early burials in the area were informal but within a few years a location northeast of Brainerd (now within the city limits) became the accepted public burial ground.
In 1879, a group of citizens decided that a formal organization was needed to sell lots, record burials and properly maintain the grounds, and thus was born the Evergreen Cemetery Association.
The nine-member Board of Trustees has been meeting for over 130 years to oversee the operation of the Association and to preserve the final resting places of the many people buried here.
The cemetery has been expanded several times and now occupies over 40 acres with over 17,000 interments.
Memorial Gardens Cemetery is just north of Brainerd on County Road 3 and is also owned and managed by the Evergreen Cemetery Association. The cemetery occupies 15 acres (out of 25 acres total) with over 2,000 interments.
The Association Office is adjacent to Evergreen Cemetery at 3rd Avenue NE and K Street in northeast Brainerd. The 3rd Avenue entrance for Evergreen Cemetery is located there.
Burial records are grouped by lot owner along with many single grave burials. There is a Directory of the Dead data sheet for each person buried in Evergreen and Memorial Gardens cemeteries.
The file for each lot contains a Directory of the Dead data sheet for each person buried in that lot, along with an obituary, if available. Anyone is allowed to provide sheets of additional information for the file, which can then be made available to others who request it in the course of their genealogy research.
Basic information is provided for free. This includes the deceased's name, dates of death and/or burial, and grave site location. Other information that has been gathered and included in the Directory of the Dead data sheet is available for $1 per name. Obituaries (if available) and any other pages of additional information will be provided for $1 per page. There is a $5 minimum per request, which can include multiple names.
A WPA project in the 1930s involved Evergreen Cemetery. This is when many Directory of the Dead data sheets for earlier burials were created using information from county death records and obituaries (where available). Subsequent burials have had data sheets created at the time of burial.
A database created in 1987 contained selected data from many of the records. The end result was a printout sorted by last name of the deceased and included the date of death and the burial location. Unfortunately, due to a computer failure, this database no longer exists. But a copy of the most recent printout is available at the Minnesota Historical Society and the Crow Wing County Historical Society.
Association Secretary Barbara Gavin, who retired in 2011, undertook the task of creating another computerized index of burials in Evergreen Cemetery and Memorial Gardens. A near-final version of this index is now available in the new online Directory of the Dead (a link to which is in the footer of every page).
The Evergreen Cemetery Association is a 501(c)(13) non-profit organization and receives no funding from city, state or federal governmental units. The size and age of the cemetery means that the Association relies on donations from generous individuals and businesses to cover the cost of improvements and projects as well as a portion of normal operating expenses.
If you have loved ones buried at Evergreen Cemetery or Memorial Gardens Cemetery and would like to make a contribution to help keep their resting place looking nice, please visit the Contact Us page for the phone number to call if you have any questions and for the mailing address to which you may send your donation. A letter of acknowledgement will be mailed back to the donor for all donations.
The IRS has determined that we are a tax exempt organization under Section 501(c)(13) of the Internal Revenue Code and we are eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions (see the Determination Letter From the IRS). The letter states in part "Donors may be eligible to deduct contributions they make to you under Internal Revenue Code Section 170(c)(5) if the contributions are voluntary and are made to a cemetery whose funds are irrevocably dedicated to the care of the cemetery as a whole".
In
addition, Evergreen accepts Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs)
made from Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs)
by those who are at least age 70½. This
Qualified Charitable Distribution section in IRS Publication 590-B
has more information. The key sentence is this one:
A QCD is generally a nontaxable distribution made directly by the trustee of your IRA … to an organization eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Note that it does not explicitly limit distributions only to 501(c)(3) charitable organizations, but instead allows the distribution to be made to ANY organization eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions, which includes 501(c)(13) non-profit cemeteries. It also has to be a direct distribution. Funds withdrawn from an IRA, then donated separately, do not qualify as a nontaxable QCD (in that case, they would be an itemized charitable contribution deduction). How to report QCDs correctly on your return is summarized on This IRS QCD Explainer Page. Additionally, QCDs will count toward a Required Minimum Distribution (RMD). You are urged to consult with your tax advisor regarding the particular tax consequences relating to charitable contributions and QCDs before taking any action.
Since 2013, the Association has conducted a springtime fundraising campaign. Each year, a letter is mailed out summarizing the past year's activities and what we have been able to accomplish with the help of generous donations. All of our past Annual Letters are available for viewing online:
Thank you for your support.
The 2024 annual membership meeting of the Evergreen Cemetery Association was held at 2:00 pm on Wednesday, July 17, in the Maple/Pine conference room at the Crow Wing County Land Services Building. In attendance were the following members of the Board of Trustees: President Duane Blanck, Vice-president John Boeder, Treasurer Gary Bluth, Secretary John Van Essen, Denise Blackwell-Kraft, Fred Casey, Tom Fitzpatrick, Susan Koering and Terry Thorkelson. Also attending were Executive Director Dede Tollefson and Guest Marc Halvorson.
The terms for board members John Boeder, Tom Fitzpatrick and John Van Essen were up. John Boeder decided to retire after 20 years of service on the board. Marc Halverson was nominated to take his seat and was elected to serve a three-year term, while Tom and John were re-elected to new three-year terms. Board officers are Duane Blanck, President; Susan Koering, Vice-president, Gary Bluth, Treasurer and John Van Essen, Secretary. See the Contact Us page for the full list of board members, terms, officers and committee members.
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