Headstone Revival

Headstone Revival has a slogan: Remembrance never dies. The business, which washes and cleans memorials and monuments, is based out of Nicollet but services a wide range of the Southern Minnesota area.

Owner Matthew Mickelson opened Headstone Revival at the beginning of this year. So far, he’s completed about six headstones, with other projects scheduled, including a large project with the Boy In Blue Civil War Memorial Committee. Mickelson said the project will focus on the headstones of Civil War veterans in Blue Earth County. There are an estimated 900 headstones, of which about 75 percent will be washed.

“It is one way to give back to those who gave so much to our country,” Mickelson said.

For Mickelson, the idea started through his own family tragedies. Two years ago, he lost his father and then unexpectedly lost his father-in-law two months later.

“Spending a lot of time in the cemeteries over the last two years and seeing all of these beautiful stones, it just kind of clicked,” Mickelson said.

He’s cleaned headstones that were installed as recently as 2020 and as long ago as 1917. Mickelson finds the work very rewarding.

“Seeing the before and after the cleaning and the reactions of the family members, the people are just elated,” Mickelson said. “Just seeing the stone restored, I think, brings back some of the memories of their loved ones, and that reaction is priceless.”

Mickelson said the business is all in the family, with his wife doing most of the advertising. His sons have taken notice, too.

“At one of my son’s programs, they asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up, and my son said a headstone cleaner.”

Although Headstone Revival has been in business less than a year, it is already impacting generations both past and present and preserving history for generations yet to come, ensuring that remembrance never dies.

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The Essentials

Headstone Revival
106 Jamie Way
Nicollet, MN 56074
Phone: (507) 828-1075