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NATCHEZ — The Bluff Columbarium Garden at the Natchez City Cemetery will be dedicated on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Plans to construct a columbarium, a place for the inurnment of cremated remains, were approved by the city and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in May 2023. However, the Natchez City Cemetery board has been pondering the idea of constructing a place for cremated remains for many years.

“We’ve been talking about it for 10 or 15 years or more,” said Terry Stutzman, president of the cemetery board. “We realized a couple of years ago it was the right time and we had the right place.”

Stutzman said right now about a third of the burials in the Natchez City Cemetery are cremations.

“Nationwide, it’s more like 50 percent. There’s a big trend in that direction. We don’t have the opportunity to buy more land to add to the cemetery right now, so the logical and practical thing was to build a columbarium,” she said.

The columbarium holds a little more than 300 niches, and each niche has room for the cremated remains of two people. The cost of the niches ranges from $3,500 to $3,000.

“We have an introductory discount until June 1 of $500 off the price of each niche,” Stutzman said.

All in the community are welcome to attend the dedication on Sunday afternoon.