Cemetery on register

Tekoa’s Lone Pine cemetery gained registry on the Washington Heritage Register in March.

Friends of the Lone Pine Cemetery have been working for more than a year to get the cemetery of their ancestors put on the registry.

“I think it’s exciting. It’s definitely a historic site from the old days. I want to do anything we can do to keep the continuity going so it doesn’t get forgotten again,” said Jim Irwin, a member of Friends of the Lone Pine. Irwin’s great grandmother Sarah Blue is buried in the cemetery.

With the registry status, the group is freed to pursue public funds for fixing up the cemetery.

“The cemetery is historically significant for its direct connection to the early pioneer settlers of the Tekoa and Lone Pine area,” read a press release from the department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation.

Many pioneers to the Tekoa/Oakesdale area were buried in the cemetery from the late 1800s into the 1950s. Most members of Friends of the Lone Pine Cemetery have ancestors buried there.