Lone Fir Cemetery, in the southeast section of

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, United States, is a

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

owned and maintained by Metro, a regional government entity. Listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

, the first burial was in 1846 with the cemetery established in 1855. Lone Fir has over 25,000 burials spread over more than .

History

19th and 20th centuries

The original land owner, James B. Stephens, purchased a land claim extending from the east bank of the Willamette River to present day Southeast 23rd and from Stark Street to Division Street. J. B. Stephens' father Emmor Stephens died shortly after the Stephens family arrived to Oregon in 1846 and was buried on the family farm. In 1854, Stephens sold the land to Colburn Barrell, with the caveat that he maintain Emmor's gravesite. Barrell owned a steamboat the ''

Gazelle A gazelle is one of many antelope species in the genus ''Gazella'' . There are also seven species included in two further genera; '' Eudorcas'' and '' Nanger'', which were formerly considered subgenera of ''Gazella''. A third former subgenus, ' ...

'', which in 1854 exploded near Oregon City, killing a passenger and Barrell's business partner Crawford Dobbins. Barrel then set up a cemetery by setting aside and burying the casualties of the explosion at the site of Emmor Stephens, calling it Mt. Crawford. Plots at the cemetery were then sold for $10 with additional being added to Lone Fir by 1866. That year Barrel offered to sell the cemetery to the city of Portland for $4,000, but the city declined and instead Barrell sold it to a group of Portland families and plotholders. The cemetery was then renamed the cemetery to Lone Fir, which was suggested by Colburn Barrell's wife, Aurelia, as there was only a single fir tree at the site. In 1903, a $3,500 memorial to the soldiers of the Indian Wars,

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...

, the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, and the

Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...

was built at the cemetery.A Brief History of Lone Fir Cemetery.
Multnomah County. Retrieved on March 2, 2008. The Soldier's Monument was paid for by donations by over 500 citizens. Then in 1928

Multnomah County Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland metropolitan area. The state's smallest and most populous county, it ...

took over control and maintenance of Lone Fir. In 1947 the county paved part of the cemetery and later constructed a building on the site. This was the location of many Chinese graves, which were removed the next year.

21st century

In 2004 it was discovered that more graves of Chinese persons likely remained at the site. In 2005 city leaders proposed removing the government building that was constructed over the graves of these Chinese immigrants and re-connecting that portion with the main cemetery; it was removed in August 2007. In January 2007 Metro took over control of this section of the cemetery after a transfer from the county. On August 16, 2007, the cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places. On November 25, 2020, the portion of cemetery's war memorial honoring Mexican-American soldiers was vandalized with graffiti, The statue which stood atop this section of the war memorial was toppled and vandalized with graffiti as well. Currently the cemetery is located between Stark Street on the north and Morrison Street to the south, with Southeast 20th Avenue bounding on the west and Southeast 26th on the east. Lone Fir covers and has over 25,000 graves, with over 10,000 of those unknown due to poor maintenance. It is home to the Pioneer Rose Garden.History in bloom. ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the West Coast of the United States, U.S. West Coast, founded as a weekly by Tho ...

'', May 24, 2007.

Notable burials

The cemetery is the resting place for several former mayors of the city, as well as other politicians and famous citizens.Some Interesting Burial Facts.
Lone Fir Cemetery. Retrieved on March 2, 2008.

References

External links

Metro Pioneer Cemetery ProgramFriends of Lone Fir CemeteryLone Fir Cemetery: famous names
at Find a Grave
Willamette Week: Portland's most interesting residents don't walk the streets. At least you'd better hope they don't.Interesting burials at Lone Fir
– ''The Oregonian'' {{Authority control 1855 establishments in Oregon Territory Buckman, Portland, Oregon Cemeteries in Portland, Oregon Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Oregon Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Portland, Oregon Metro (Oregon regional government) Portland Historic Landmarks Cemeteries established in the 1850s