This morning we went to the Eureka Cemetery to clean up the graves. Georgianne wrote a wonderful missive about the experience, and I'm going to let her tell us all about it.
Eureka Cemetery , “Do something that makes a difference” June 13, 2020
Our grandparents, George and Georgina Richards, are buried
in the Eureka Cemetery in the Tinic mountain area of Utah. It is an uncared for
spot with some current graves but mostly full of old, forgotten and hidden
grave sites originating 1894 now on the National Register of Historic Places in
1979.
The Tintic Mining District is
among the oldest in Utah. Ore was first discovered in December 1869 and was a
rich gold strike. Up to January 1914 the mines had produced metal amounting to
$143,295,800. The district is about six miles long by two miles wide, within
the area are the towns of Eureka, and Mammoth along with others. My grandparents
met and married in Mammoth which is now a ghost town. Eureka was the cemetery
for these towns. Mammoth was named for the Mammoth Mine and became a boomtown,
the Mammoth mine produced ore, silver and gold and was in production for around
seventy five years.
Our grandfather, George, at
the age of 14, began working in the mines and became relatively independent at
that young age. George met [Georgina Mordue] when he went to work in the
Mammoth mine. They were married on 10 October 1905 when he was 19. Georgina was
a few months older than George.
In 1962 when I began college at
Brigham Young University, my mother instructed me to go to the Eureka cemetery
to clean the graves. As a dutiful daughter and one loving my historic past, I
drove to Eureka, took one look and was totally overwhelmed. It was a view of
overgrown sagebrush, weeds, crumbling markers, dead trees and sticker plants.
Where does one begin to “clean up the cemetery”! I did make a small attempt
around our grandparent’s graves to pull some weeds and pick up trash but it
seemed like a very small attempt. Since that time my sister, Sue, and brother,
Tom, moved to Utah. Our family was the last to arrive in Utah and over the
years we have gone to Eureka each Memorial Day to place flowers on the graves
with assorted children to make sure things are in order. One year Mom decided
the grave plot should have rocks placed on it to keep down the weeds which were
always a problem and we had a huge truck load of rocks delivered and we all
spread them around.
This Memorial Day May 25, 2020 Tom, Darlene, Sue and I went
to Eureka with our flowers. It was a blustery cold day and we were surprised to
see so much sage brush had grown all around and the poplar trees were totally
dead. We decided a return trip was needed to get the trees down and the sage
eliminated around the plot with the proper tools and warm bodies to help with
the job.
Sue talked with her family and organized a family group to
gather on Saturday June 13, 2020, Tom and Darlene with their truck, Sue’s son
Christopher and his twin boys in their truck with flat bed trailer behind,
Eugene with two of his boys, and daughter Katherine and husband Kent with their
two kids. Everyone pitched together, Tom and Christopher cut down the poplar
trees and sawed them into manageable sizes and the boys loaded them into the
trailer and trucks to be hauled to the drop off zone. Darlene and Sue cut down
the sage brush and we gathered and loaded it into the trucks. We pulled weeds,
dug up roots, raked and cleaned until all was looking much cleaner. It took us,
working together, just over an hour, an amazing feat for all that needed to be
done and very satisfying and fun. It was a perfect day although a bit windy but
the wind was cooling for a hard working crew in 80 degree weather. It occurred
to me while bending over pulling up weeds that we were all making a difference
and maybe our mom and grandparents and for some, their great grandparents were
smiling down on us pleased with our efforts.
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