Lone Pine Cemetery in running for state register

Lone Pine Cemetery, located near Tekoa, has been nominated for a place on the Washington Heritage Register.

Listing on the register would give the cemetery protection against future development on the part of the state or federal government. It would also qualify the Friends of the Lone Pine Cemetery group to apply for public funding for the cemetery, according to Jim Irwin of Walla Walla, a member of Friends of the Lone Pine Cemetery.

The group is actively working for state status to better clean up the cemetery, which holds the graves of many of their ancestors.

The Governor’s Advisory Council will meet Feb. 24, 9 a.m. in Olympia to review the selected applications across the state.

“Having a property listed in the register is an honor. Listing of a property does not impose federal or state restrictive covenants or easements nor will it result in a taking,” read a press release from the state’s Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation.

Lone Pine Cemetery holds the graves of pioneers with death dates starting in the late 1800s and ending in the 1950s. Descendants began uncovering and fixing up the cemetery about three years ago.

Almost half a century of neglect and harsh weather has hidden many headstones beneath densely overgrown bushes, rotted the fence outside the cemetery, knocked over headstones and erased names.

Friends of the Lone Pine Cemetery in work sessions have uncovered long-forgotten tombstones, removed brush and wayward trees, placed gravel and repaired fences. Many in the group can directly trace their heritage to the people buried in the cemetery.

Making the state register, said Irwin, a descendant of some of the pioneers buried in the cemetery, will allow them to apply for grant funding from the state.

“Basically we want to get this declared a historical site because we think it will help us get grant money for maintenance and doing some of the repairs we want to do,” Irwin said.

The cemetery still needs a fence around it, and a thicket of trees grows over many of the graves.