Sunday, November 11, is Veterans Day.

Originally designated as Armistice Day, this holiday memorializes the truce that ended World War I — which was completed at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year. WWI was thought to be The War to End All Wars until World War II began twenty years later.

Congress changed the name to Veterans Day in June 1954 with the intent to acknowledge the end of two world wars, rather than just one, and recognize the contributions and sacrifices that all veterans had made while serving the country — in wartime and peace. President Eisenhower issued a Presidential Proclamation for Veterans Day in October 1954, calling for all Americans to “solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve hour heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain.”

While the holiday is commonly named “Veteran’s Day” or “Veterans’ Day” in calendars and advertisements (spellings that are grammatically acceptable), the United States Department of Veterans Affairs states that the attributive (no apostrophe) rather than the possessive case is the official spelling “because it is not a day that ‘belongs’ to veterans, it is a day for honoring all veterans.

Veterans Day is not to be confused with Memorial Day, which began as Decoration Day in 1868. Decoration Day was founded to honor the Union soldiers who had perished during the Civil War. In 1882, Congress changed the basis of Decoration Day to honor and remember everyone who had died. Congress then changed the name of the holiday to Memorial Day in 1967.

A Few 2019 Calendars Still Left at Red Fox Vintage!

We still have a handful of 2019 calendars left and super excited to say that we are selling them at Red Fox Vintage Woodstock! Come on by their location to pick up a 2019 Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery calendar for $15. We are excited because we know you can’t always make it to the cemetery on the first and second Saturdays and this makes such a perfect holiday gift. This is our first run of the calendar concept and super excited that the wonderful staff at Red Fox are going to carry it for us! All proceeds to to Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery and our efforts to restore and preserve this wonderful outdoor museum!

4528 SE Woodstock Blvd, Portland, OR 97206. Open daily 11-7

Also available Online

Thank you for attending Tombstone Trick or Treat in Lone Fir Cemetery!

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our Tombstone Trick or Treat event in Lone Fir Cemetery last Saturday! We hope you had as much fun as we did.

About 3,500 people — children and adults — wandered the Cemetery, we gave out 6,500 pieces of candy, and in addition to our merchandise sales, we received about $300 in donations. Several hundred people stopped by our information tent to ask questions about Lone Fir Cemetery, including a few descendants of Colburn Barrell, and more than 50 of you expressed interest in volunteering for Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery next year. And we will definitely be in touch soon!

We also want to thank everyone from Metro who joined us for the day including Matt, Noel, and especially Lupine, who not only arranged for us to borrow equipment, but personally delivered it herself!

We had an immense array of children and adults show up in costume: ghosts and goblins, witches, warlocks, and wizards (including representatives from every house of Hogwarts), sea creatures, dinosaurs, shoes, video games, superheroes and comic book characters, hobbits, historical figures, jungle animals, and just about every other person, place, or thing you imaginable.

Thank you and thank you again. We planned a little event that we though might attract several hundred or a thousand people. We were absolutely floored to see over double that number arrive (even if we did run out of candy a couple times). You brought an afternoon of life and laughter to the cemetery and its residents

We hope to see you again in the future at tour, headstone cleaning workshop, or other event. Please leave us comments, suggestions or other feedback, and if you took any photos on Saturday, we would love to see them!

If you are interested in joining Friends of Lone Fir, please join us for our Annual Meeting on Thursday, February 7, 2019.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for cemetery updates and news about other future events.

TOMBSTONE TRICK OR TREAT!

Tombstone Trick or Treat is a free, family-friendly Halloween trick-or-treat party hosted by Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery and featuring some of Lone Fir’s most prominent ghosts. On Saturday, October 27th from 12 to 3 in the afternoon, the cemetery’s gates will be flung wide for guests to wander the grounds and mingle with historic Portland spirits who have made impressive — and sometimes unusual — contributions to our community. The ghosts will hand out candy and chat about their historical lives.

This is a FREE event for all age groups. We will have our FLFC info booth along with opportunities to purchase merchandise such as t-shirts, hoodies and more.

Halloween is a popular time in cemeteries and the purpose of holding family friendly and educational events this time of year is to invite you in and share our love of this wonderful historical cemetery. Statistics have shown that if you invite, include, educate and share with the community it will foster local stewardship and ultimately mitigate vandalism which can be so rampant this time of year. So with that said we invite you to take part in this fun event and fall in love with Lone Fir Cemetery.

This year we are excited to offer for sale a 2019 Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery calendar. They will be for sale at this event for $15.

Looking forward to seeing you out at Lone Fir at our Halloween inspired event or at our monthly tours which are the first and second Saturday of the month!

 

 

Fall activities at Lone Fir – End of an era

 

 

Metro has decided to no longer run the Tour of Untimely Departures. This was not an easy decision; we know the tour is popular and beloved by many. It also requires a large amount of staff time and resources to produce. With all the community engagement efforts Metro Parks and Nature is committed to over the next few years, we are simply unable to host the tour.

We are interested in collaborating with community partners to welcome visitors to Lone Fir through inclusive and accessible activities, where people can share and engage in the diverse history of Lone Fir and Portland through free, family-friendly events. While we don’t have a timeline for a new event, we are interested in building on the Community History Fair that was started last year. Stay tuned for more information.

 

Volunteers Needed!

Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery needs enthusiastic volunteers for two upcoming events:

Saturday, May 12th, 2018 is Oregon Cemetery Clean Up Day. We need as many volunteers as we can get to help spruce up Lone Fir for spring as part of this state-wide effort.
The shift runs from 10:00am to 12:00pm and the duties include picking up debris and weeding around headstones. Tools, training and snacks will be provided. The more hands we have the more fun it will be for everyone. This is a cooperative project between Friends of Lone Fir, METRO, and SOLVE. To sign up for this opportunity please fill out the form here.

Memorial Day Weekend is May 26th, 27th, and 28th and Friends of Lone Fir needs volunteers in the cemetery all three days.
We need 12 people to help Central Catholic High School students put flags on the graves of veterans from 8:30am to 12:00pm on Saturday May 26th.

On all three days we need 4 people to staff a welcome table and help families find  graves from 930am to 3:45pm. We hope for volunteers to work the entire shift, but we will
take your help if you can only attend for part of that time.

Shift duties include:

  • 9:30 – 10 a.m. unload information supplies, erect canopy, set up tables and chairs
  • 9:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. staff information table: assist visitors with finding graves (records and field work)
  • 12:30 – 3:15 p.m. staff information table
  • 3:15 – 3:45 p.m. load tables, chairs, canopy, supplies

Lastly, we need one or two volunteers to lead the Historical Tour for guests at 11:00am,1:00pm, and 3:00pm on Monday May 28th.

Contact J Swofford to get on the schedule and to get your questions answered, info@friendsoflonefircemetery.org

 

Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery Annual Meeting

Please join us on the evening of Thursday, February 8, 2017, for the Friends of Lone Fir Annual Meeting at Revolution Hall. Revolution Hall is located at 1300 SE. Stark St Portland, OR 97214.

The doors will open at 6:30 p.m. for socializing (refreshments and appetizers will be provided) and our program will start at 7:00 p.m. We’ll be sending you more information by mid-January, but we are planning to have a guest speaker and a few interactive conversations about future opportunities for our organization, plus a calendar of events for 2018 and an official announcement about our next tour, the “Politics and Polemics Tour.”

If you are not an official member of Friends of Lone Fir, now is the time to join for next year! And if you are already a member, now is the time to renew your membership for 2018!

Membership options are:

  • $30 contribution for a regular membership
  • $15 contribution for retirees and seniors
  • $10 contribution for students

 

You can submit your contribution online at the Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery website. To make other payment arrangements, please email us at info@friendsoflonefircemetery.org.

 

To qualify for a student membership, all you need to do is provide some proof of enrollment at any school or participation in any apprenticeship program. For more information, please email us at info@friendsoflonefircemetery.org.

 

If you plan to attend our Annual Meeting, please provide your RSVP as soon as possible. We have reserved a meeting space that can accommodate up to 50 people and space will fill up quickly. More importantly, if we need to reserve a larger meeting space due to popular demand, we will need to do so by the end of December.

 

On behalf of the Board of Directors, thank you — friends and members — for helping us out this past year. Our members and donors provided us the sustained financial support we need to carry out our overall mission:

 

  • To educate the broader public about the history and importance of Lone Fir Cemetery through tours, workshops, and special events.

  • To preserve Lone Fir Cemetery’s legacy and historic significance, especially in a rapidly changing city.

  • To restore and replace headstones and other cemetery features for future generations to enjoy.

  • And to collaborate with other like-minded groups in pursuit of this mission.

Those of you who joined us for a tour, workshop, or other event helped us put that mission into practice, and we genuinely enjoyed your company. We had over 150 people take a tour this past year plus another 50 help us out in our Headstone Cleaning Workshops. Our success as an organization depends on donations of both time and money, and we are truly grateful for all of our donors and contributors. If you have any questions, comments, or feedback about any aspect of Friends of Lone Fir, please get in touch.

May your end of the year holiday season bring you peace and joy, and we look forward to seeing you in February!

Warmly,

Joel Corcoran
Chair of the Board of Directors
Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery

Email: joel@friendsoflonefircemetery.org
Mobile: 503-381-5251