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L LIFESTYLES EDITOR; TAWNY ARCHIBALD THE DAILY HERALD (www.HarkTheHerald.com) 344-25- SUNDAY, MAY 28, 2000 A place of remembranm Service project decorates historic canyon cemetery By ERIC D. SNIDER The Daily Herald a" couple famiiies leftrno "it's all sagebrush. You wouldn't even know a house had eve.r been there." But there remains that cemetery, with Atwood's relatives,-alo- ng with several unmarked graves of unknown people, rumored to have been killed by Indians or to have died as chil' dren of diphtheria. On May 20 just in time for an Eagle Scout Memorial Day resulted the erection in project of a flagpole at the cemetery. Since custom dictates that a U.S. flag not be flown at night without a light shining on it, Atwood said that a flag was painted on a board and put up on permanent display. "It's a beautiful thing," he said. "It really shines." The flagpole was the culmination of years of work on the part of Atwood, his family and his friends in the North Fork Ward of the LDS Church. Last year, under Atwood's direction and initiative, a bridge was built over an area that had often flooded in the past and was often unpass-able- . The Forest Service, which owns the land, donated all the planking for the bridge, and Atwood's fellow church members assisted quite a bit. But mostly, it's been a family I Ml ML , JtFm..-- it V 1 1 f v V, r ... . 1VJ . r.t Wl ' 1 - ot . f"" M.V ffi. -- r- affair. "The main thing is not only ' 1 1 only 65-fo- Ml . 1 , SPANISH FORK CANYON JJp Spanish Fork Canyon sits a small cemetery. Thirteen graves are there, from the Atwood, Chadwick and Elliott families, the only remnants of what used to be a community called Mill Fork. ;: .'.; Doug Atwood, who grew up in the area and has since moved down the canyon into Spanish Fork, has grandparents buried there, along with brothers, . uncles and other relatives. For most of his 76 years, Atwood has worked on preserving, maintaining and beautifying the cemetery, "I just went with Dad when I was small, and I've been fascinated with it," he said simply. "It's just what I've always done." In its heyday, Mill Fork had about 250 families. By the time Atwood was young, there were 1 V A. cleaning up the cemetery and making it look nice, which is very important, but it's a family affair now,' he said. "And it's on both sides." (His wife, Christie, doesn't have relatives buried there, but she belongs to the ' BRIAN FITZGERAI.DThe Dairy Henld Making it meaningful: Scoutmaster Craig Hamilton guides a permanent U.S. flag into its base before its dedication at the Mill Fork cemetery. Below, the grave marker for Durward Atwood, a Utah pioneer who settfed in the Mill Fork area, was one of the earliest settlers' graves in the tiny cemetery. Daughters of the Pioneers and is "very interested," her husband said, in pushing things along.) They've made the spot, which they've now added benches and tables to, into a pleasant family reunion location. , , v: "We had close to 70 people there this year," Atwood said. "We had five generations. "I just went with Dad when I was small, and I've been fascinated with it." Doug Atwood . Everyone looks forward to that the third Saturday in May every year." "One sister came up from Oregon, and she's in her he added. Most of the major work on the site has been done in the last year. At the 1999 family reunion, Atwood pitched the day, mid-80s- Let freedom ring ," idea to his gathered family, and , they .responded enthusiastically. "I asked my nephews and their families if they would be interested in taking part in this, and they were just tickled to death," he said. - So chainlink fences have been installed, that huge bridge con- structed, and the individual grave sites cleaned up and maintained. " There's also a history of Mill Fork written on a plaque for visitors to look at. There's also a note box," Atwood said. "People from all over the United States have stopped and left a note there to me. That makes you feel good." , Eric D. Snider can be or at reached at ( : 344-256- 0 135 years of remembrance Fallen of Civil War also honored on Memorial Day The Associated Press On WASHINGTON this Memorial Day, David Schneider, like thousands of Americans in cemeteries across the country, will go to the grave of a family member and leave flowers. It's a way to show his appreciation for a relative who died protecting the freedoms that all Americans enjoy. But when Schneider looks at the grave of his relative, Pvt. James T. Martin, he won't be thinking about the hazards of Inchon, the Tet Offensive or even Verdun. More likely, his forebearer could have tasted combat at Bull Run, Chancellorsville or Gettysburg. Laying graveside flowers . is a tradition dating to the aftermath of the U.S. Civil Martin, whose original marker read J. R. Mardin. War, when people began to decorate new graves of the country's fallen fighters from both sides. Although most Memorial Day visitors honor Memorial Day will also find the great, great granddaughter of Cpl. George W. Lee at a marker at the Barrancas their relatives who died in the 20th Century, the fallen of the Civil War are still being remembered 135 years-aftethe war's end. Of VA's 1 18 national cemeteries for veterans, more than half contain Civil War dead. , Schneider s father, Norman, tracked down his own great, great grandfather to VA's Loudon Park National Cemetery in Baltimore, only to find that in 1865 the U.S. government misspelled his name on the headstone. The cemetery ordered a new stone to mark the grave of r VA ' ; National Cemetery in Pensacola, Fla. The cemetery director recently ordered the marker following Peggy Lynn Dueitt's long search to locate her ancestor's final resting place in a commu- nal gravesite of unknown "soldiers. The Sons of Union Veterans will lead the public in strewing flowers on the graves at Loudon Park again this Memorial Day. Keeping alive the original tradition ot as Decoration Day Memorial Day was known at see MEMORIAL, D2 VA'S NATIONAL CEMETERIES FROM CIVIL WAR ERA Alabama: Mobile National Cemetery x- - ... " RON EDMONDSThe The early morning sun silhouettes the Iwo Jima memorial ready for Memorial Day weekend. EE rV. Associated Press as the Washington, D.C., area gets Arkansas: Fayetteville National . Cemetery Fort Smith National Cemetery Little Rock National Cemetery Florida: Barrancas National Cemetery, Pensacola Georgia: Marietta National Cemetery Illinois: Rock Island National Cemetery, Moline Mound City National Cemetery Camp Butler National Cemetery, Springfield Indiana: Crown Hill National Cemetery, Indianapolis New Albany National Cemetery Iowa: Keokuk National Cemetery Kansas: Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery Fort Scott National Cemetery Kentucky: Danville National Cemetery Lebanon National Cemetery Lexington National Cemetery Cave Hill National Cemetery, Louisville Mill Springs National Cemetery, Nancy Camp Nelson National Cemetery, Nicholasville Louisiana: Alexandria National Cemetery Baton Rouge National Cemetery Port Hudson National Cemetery, Zachary Maryland: Annapolis National Cemetery Loudon Park National Cemetery, Baltimore Mississippi: Corinth National Cemetery Natchez National Cemetery Missouri: Jefferson City National Cemetery Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, St. Louis Springfield National Cemetery New Jersey: Beverly National Cemetery New York: Cypress Hills National Cemetery, Brooklyn North Carolina: New Bern National Cemetery Raleigh National Cemetery Salisbury National Cemetery Wilmington National Cemetery Oklahoma: Fort Gibson National Cemetery Pennsylvania: Philadelphia National Cemetery South Carolina: Beaufort National Cemetery Florence National Cemetery Tennessee: Chattanooga National Cemetery Knoxville National Cemetery Memphis National Cemetery Nashville Nitional Cemetery Texas: San Antonio National . . Cemetery Virginia: Alexandria National Cemetery Culpeper National Cemetery Danville National Cemetery Hampton National Cemetery Ball's Bluff National Cemetery, Leesburg City Point National Cemetery, Richmond Cold Harbor National Cemetery, Richmond Fort Harrison National Cemetery, Richmond Glendale National Cemetery, Richmond Richmond National Cemetery Seven Pines National Cemetery, Sandston Staunton National Cemetery Winchester National Cemetery West Virginia: Grafton National Cemetery SOURCE: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs |
