A month ago this newspaper clipping mysteriously appeared attached to my locker at work. From this article I learned that the Sandy Historical Museum has taken over the care of the Cherryville Cemetery and they hosted a cleanup day last Saturday (Read this post and this post for background on this family mystery/saga. Preita has some nice photos of it on her blog, too. ). I was so incredibly stoked! Unfortunately I had to work that day. I was seriously sad about that because I feel like I have some kind of family duty to the care of that place (having cousins buried there). I think I will see how I can get involved, though, in the restoration. It’s an important piece of local history that was almost swallowed up by the Oregon wildness. How sad!

One our way home from our (kinda depressing) hike yesterday we decided to stop by the cemetary to see how the cleanup went. I was rather skeptical that they would get anything done with it. That place was seriously in need of major work. A simple cleanup in which people bring their garden tools wasn’t going to do the trick.

I was so wrong!

They did an AMAZING job! It looks really good. It’s not completely cleared out, there is still ivy growing all over the place (that I tripped on, of course. The oregon forest is trying to kill me.), but you can actually walk up to the grave sites. I am so pleased!

We walked around and snapped some photos. I found my cousins’ graves and put a makeshift bouquet of flowers on them.

A nice ending to the day!