FRIENDS OF LONE FIR CEMETERY
Lone Fir Cemetery located at S.E. 20th and Morrison, Portland Oregon
Welcome to our new web page! It's been a long time since we've been on the web and we're excited about getting back online. We have some great ideas for our new website and we'll be working to improve and upgrade it regularly. For now please enjoy the following pages.
A tour of Lone Fir Cemetery: This page is a reproduction of a pamphlet on Lone Fir Cemetery (available from the cemetery office), with new and updated photographs, produced by Portland, Oregon's Metro District
Jan. 2005 Archealogical dig at the Morrison Building: A photo shoot of the excavation.
Burial facts: Lone Fir Cemetery is the final resting place of the noble, the average and the notorious citizens of Portland and Oregon. If you plan to visit Lone Fir Cemetery here are some unusual and historic graves you can find.
Schedule of Events: Calender of events, tours, volunteer work parties..
Contact Information and Links: Like to become a member or volunteer? We'd love to hear from you!
About Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery
Our Beginnings
Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery became a reality when a group of dedicated volunteers expressed a shared interest in preserving and advocating for the cemetery. Our mission is to educate the general community about Lone Fir and provide historic preservation and restoration programs. Through creative partnerships and a motivated membership we can continue to create positive effects in our community.
The Present
Our group provides education and interpretation to the cemetery through tours and it's newsletter "ENGRAVINGS". Friends hosts a number of work parties for volunteers and hands-on approach for learning about the cemetery while doing great community service as well.
Lone Fir's Future
Our long-term goals are to see an end to the over 120 years of neglect and vandalism at the cemetery, beautification of the entire grounds, and continuing use of LoneFir as a tool for teaching the connection between our communities past, the present, and our future. Friends continues to operate based on memberships and generous donations from people like you.
Full Circle
At the January Commission meeting, the METRO council accepted the transfer of the property at the south entrance to Lone Fir Cemetery, at SE 21st and Morrison Street, from Multnomah County. This completes our three year campaign to reunite Block 14, including the Chinese Burial Ground, with the rest of Lone Fir Cemetery.
The way forward from here is yet to unfold. We have been told that Metro has no plans to use the area as a cemetery. No more burials will be unearthed. The City of Portland, through Commissioner Randy Leonard, will donate $150,000 toward renovation of the property to turf. Metro will handle the mowing, as they do with the rest of the cemetery. Metro, along with the Consolidated Chinese Benevolent Association and other interested citizens will continue the dialog and will ultimately determine what will be erected there, as a memorial to the Chinese immigrant laborers who gave so much to build this country. Any discussion of particulars would be premature, but Maya Lin has been consulted. Wouldn't a monument of hers spark up Southeast?
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Friends of Lone Fir is very proud of our work to get things to this point. We willingly hand the baton to the Chinese to take it from here, and give Portland a real landmark. We will support their efforts as we are able, and look forward to helping educate future Portlanders about what happened here. Those of you who donated money to help with the monument can be assured that the money will be forwarded on to the memorial fund, when it gets organized. Thanks to all of you who helped along the way, from folks who packed hearing rooms, gave testimoney, lit candles in the cold at vigils, wrote newspaper articles, and supported the cemetery in many other ways during its transormation.
A special thanks to
Red Acorn for it's hosting service