ABOVE: Sinn Family Celebration of Life Center owner and Funeral Director Ean Sinn stands with the newly installed crematorium at their Trimont location. Around 50 percent of what Sinn does is cremations, and now they can do it all in house instead of traveling upwards of 4.5 hours.

TRIMONT – Sinn Family Celebration of Life Center has cut out the middleman for their business and rural families by installing their own crematorium.

The business owns funeral homes in Trimont, Sherburn and Welcome and serves people throughout southern Minnesota and northern Iowa. Owner and Funeral Director Ean Sinn said they had been looking to add this option for a while, as around half of what they are asked to do is cremations.

“After talking with neighbors in the city and seeing there were no objections to doing it, we thought we might as well get started,” he said. “The process was really simple. With the city of Trimont, they made it easy. The neighbors have been great. We had a lot of local contractors do the work to get it in.”

Sinn said only around 30 percent of America’s funeral homes have a crematorium, but he has worked in funeral homes with crematoriums before. Because of this, he said he had a good idea of what to look for.

“Some of them, like the last funeral home that I worked at, they had a crematory that was warm to the touch on the outside,” he said. “You could almost hurt your hand if you touched it on the outside of the machine. This one is very well insulated, which I know is better for efficiency on gas usage, energy usage, as well as just internal environment, keeping the building the same temperature here.”

With this past experience, Sinn said he has seen the benefits an in-house crematorium can have for families of the deceased.

“I worked at funeral homes in the past that had crematories,” he said. “There’s always a comfort in the fact, when they hear that the cremation is going to be done right there, they can see the machine. If they have any questions, we’ll give them a tour. We’ll walk them through the whole process.”

Before, Sinn said they would often have to drive upwards of four and a half hours to do cremations. Now, Sinn said having a crematorium will save them a lot of time and be more efficient for their workflow.

As for where the crematory actually sits, Sinn said they have had the space picked out for a while now.

“We remodeled the existing 4,700 square feet,” he said. “From there, we added on the 4,300 square feet that made space for an extra family room, extra public space, expanded bathroom, handicap accessibility, our embalming room and then the garage. The garage we made large intentionally, knowing that someday we might want to do the crematory. That would have been finished back in October 2024.”

The crematory was delivered Dec. 23, 2025, have been shipped from Florida, and was able to be used starting this week. So far, Sinn said this change has been very well received.

“We’ve actually had a lot of people ask for tours when they’ve been here for visitations,” he said. “If we have the time to do that, I’m happy to give a tour anytime. People like to see it. They like to know how the process works, whether they’re going to be cremated or not.”

To Sinn, this change is part of his ongoing mission to bring what rural southern Minnesotans need.

“Rural Minnesota is often overlooked by a lot of people, especially these smaller towns,” he said. “A lot of our under-1,000-person towns, they don’t have new businesses investing in their towns. I’ve been planning on coming back to Trimont and working in funeral homes in Trimont, Sherburn, Welcome since I was 17, when I was in high school. This was my plan, to be able to do everything all in one spot. It’s just a dream come true for our business.”

With planned preventative maintenance, Sinn said the crematorium should work normally for 20 to 30 years before needing replacement.

For more information or questions, visit sinnfuneralhome.com or call 507-639-5711.