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Missoula, Mont. (AP) The western Montana state veterans' cemetery is to be dedicated in Missoula on Thursday.

A grant from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs paid for nearly all of the $4.1 million cost for excavating, landscaping and installing utilities, irrigation and roads. Work began last fall.

Montana also has veterans cemeteries in Miles City and Helena.

Charlie Crookshanks, chairman of the Western Montana State Veterans Cemetery Committee, says the initiative for the Missoula project was the distance that families of veterans had to drive to visit their loved ones' graves. Of the 109,000 veterans in Montana, Crookshanks says 36,000 live in western Montana.

Only the western half of the 24-acre site has been developed.

Crookshanks says project engineers predict the developed half of the cemetery won't fill up for 50 years.

Information from: Missoulian, http://www.missoulian.com (Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APNP 09-10-08 1224CDT | save this article / add to your favorites list