An Exciting Project -- James Cemetery

A reminder that we are working at Pacific this coming Saturday at 9:00 a.m. (yes, I’ve heard the weather forecast) with a rain (snow?) date set for Saturday, April 30 if necessary.

This has the potential of being a very fun project. As you may remember, we have been asked to help “unearth” a cemetery that has been covered up by decades of flood waters and the development of a home at the site in the 1960s. Today, the home has been demolished as part of the big flood buy-out at Pacific a few years ago.

One fragmented headstone was unearthed by city crews last summer. Old timers recall perhaps as many as a dozen headstones at the site. The City of Pacific has arranged for an operator of a bobcat or backhoe to come and gently scrape away the layers of earth as we watch for headstones and other indications of grave sites. Our working name for the site is “James Cemetery” as the James family members were first to exclude the cemetery from the sale of the surrounding property indicating that the James’ had an “interest” in the graveyard.

Contact Marc at Washington Historical Society Museum for directions.