When a highway was widened on Fort Bragg several years ago, “prehistoric remains” were recovered:

The only surviving remains came from the hardest part of the body – tooth enamel – estimated to date to 5,000 B.C.

The discovery of the remains, coupled with requirements of a 1990 law known as the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, spurred a partnership with modern Indian tribes…

Ultimately, Fort Bragg worked with the tribes to determine a place to inter the remains, and ultimately decided upon the Main Post cemetery. There was one hitch:

Fort Bragg officials required the remains be marked with a headstone that met military regulations.

Thus was born the headstone marked simply, “Known Only to the Creator,” which seems to recall the Tomb of the Unknowns, which ends with “Known but to God.”

Perhaps it is fitting that Fort Bragg would mark the grave with such a reminder of God, as death and mortality are sometimes man’s most significant inspiration to call upon their Creator.

Photo credit: Andrew Craft /The Fayetteville Observer via The Associated Press

ADVERTISEMENT