Cemetery Tales Project - Gorge Heritage Museum









Graveyard Tales

Have you ever wandered around White Salmon and stumbled on the old Pioneer Cemetery located just north of Bethel Congregational Church and west of the Seventh Day Adventist Church? The small graveyard is cared for by the City of White Salmon after SDS Lumber Company cleaned up the area, placed the fence around the park, added signage and relocated the headstones to an area where they could be viewed and respected. Do you know the history behind the tomb stones? 
 
Now you have the opportunity to learn about the many souls laid to rest in that Graveyard.
The West Klickitat County Historical Society, an all-volunteer organization, is looking for a few people wanting to learn more about our local history. We need assistance with cast and production personnel to help us share the stories of the early residents to our area. Wonderful volunteers have been researching the many individuals buried here from 1882 – 1920. We have a civil war veteran, 1903 Husum Postmaster, a school teacher, people who died from drowning in the rivers or logging accidents while working the logs in the White Salmon River and several who died from diseases we no longer consider a threat.
Some of the names of the individuals are Cooke, Groshong, Hansen, Hendrix, Lauterbach, Purser, Rankin, Thompson, Locke, Willets, Williams, Wyers, Ziegler and the Knutson family.
Do you have family history to share with us about these individuals? Would you like to play their story?

Our actors will portray first person monologues that tell the story of these early Klickitat County residents. Many of them arrived here before Washington was even a state.
Do you have experience in script writing, checking our primary research, or producing a small event? We could use your help. The production will be a fund raiser for the Gorge Heritage Museum May 30 – June 1, 2019 in the evening.

To reach us email the museum at ghm@gorge.net. This can be monitored from our homes and we will get back to you in a timely manner. Enrich your knowledge of local history and have a great time learning some fun facts about the early history of White Salmon and the surrounding area.

Submitted by Etta Hepner- GHM