Cemeteries tour origin unknown

Jana Mathia, Gazette Reporter | Dec 14, 20170

The origin of the Cemeteries on the Palouse tour is as much of a mystery as some of the gravestones they point to.

Under “Activities” on the Palouse Scenic Byway website is an option for cemetery tours which directs viewers to a listing of more than 80 cemeteries in the area. There is also a map with the location of 50 of those cemeteries marked.

The cemeteries listed range in size and use from large ones, like the Colfax/Masonic/IOOF Cemetery with directions and location, to the Doll Child Grave with no more information given.

“I think it’s fascinating to go and wander around old cemeteries,” said Janel Goebel, who is co-chair of the Palouse Scenic Byway committee. “Some people like that (history).”

But who posted the tour listing and when is something neither Goebel nor the other co-chair, Carol Cooper, tourism director at Pullman Chamber of Commerce, know anything about. Cooper pointed out she is the fourth tourism director since the inception of the Palouse Scenic Byway. The website and cemeteries tour pre-dated her, and she has left it in place.

Goebel noted that many of the smaller cemeteries offer their own interesting puzzle and mystery. A cemetery near Elberton includes many headstones with similar death dates. What caused so many people to die all at once? Disease, flooding and fire are all likely possibilities.

Many of the smaller cemeteries were started by pioneers and early settlers. Some are maintained by family in isolated corners of dormant land. Others are jewels dedicated to the peaceful resting of residents and the tranquility of the visitors in the park-like setting.

According to Martha Mullen of Pullman, autumn is a good time of year to look for the cemeteries and headstones, since things are usually overgrown in the spring and summer. Mullen spent two-and-a-half years traveling Whitman County’s back roads, which she then recorded in her book, Reflections on the Road. The third chapter in her book is about the variety of cemeteries she came across in her travels.

“There are some really interesting markers,” she told the Gazette. “Some of the older ones were just beautiful.”

While traveling in the summer, Mullen often stopped to have her lunch at a cemetery because the trees growing there provided nice shade for her and her dog. Sometimes she would run across people who had stories of the graves; those stories and others are retold in her book, which is available at any Whitman County library.

For those wanting to delve into the cemeteries and their histories more, Mullen recommended the book Whitman County from Abbyville to Zion, by Edith Ericson. It tells stories of the different towns and settlements in the county, and in the back of the book are hand-drawn maps of the cemeteries. Mullen also said the historical societies could be a good resource for learning about cemeteries and some of their occupants.

As to who compiled the listing of the variety of resting places throughout Whitman County, why and when ... that remains as unknown as what the dash between dates of a wayward headstone could represent.