The Search for Ethan Allen – Where is he REALLY Buried?
In life, Ethan Allen was a controversial Revolutionary War hero that history often describes as fiercely independent, a bit crude, brash and undoubtedly, daring. Allen was no military genius, rather an overbearing, loud-mouthed braggart. He was also a staunch patriot who apparently did not know the meaning of fear. George Washington would write of Allen, “There is an original something about him that commands attention.” On May 10, 1775, Ethan Allen with Benedict Arnold at his side led the Green Mountain Boys to capture Fort Ticonderoga on the New York side of Lake Champlain.
But where is this legendary figure now? It is known that he died on February 12, 1789, two years before Vermont was admitted into the Union. What most people believe is that his body rests under the eight-foot statue and the 35-foot granite column at Green Mount Cemetery in Burlington, VT. It’s very easy to find. The monument is the tallest and most prominent one in the state. The whole structure stands upon a solid foundation of marvelous stone work. However, errors in the cemetery records indicate that Allen was actually buried 40 feet away from the site first identified as his grave. Archaeologists excavated the area around Allen’s grave, based on the cemetery plot map and found nothing at all. Many theories from grave robbers to a secret burial elsewhere are merely guesses. The truth is nobody really knows, for certain, where Ethan Allen is buried.
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