County removes massive stumps from DeBorgia Cemetery

The DeBorgia Cemetery is situated between DeBorgia and Haugan on the Frontage Road and is manicured to a park-like setting on 1.5 acres.

The earliest known grave dates to 1905 among the 215 that are known buried there.

An active board of directors meets when need arises with all meetings open to the public. Ellen Matz is the chairperson. Mark Wasseen is vice chair. Debbie Fontaine is the secretary and Stephanie Todd handles the finances as their treasurer.

Last year the DeBorgia Cemetery had their John Deere riding lawnmower stolen and was never recovered. It was a big blow to those who make the area visually appealing, especially Ricky Weaver who is the groundskeeper.

They also lost five giant trees last spring, but spruced everything back up as best they could, and then four more toppled this year during the two windstorms that swept through the county a few months ago.

“The trees were sawed up by local residents, but the stumps were too big to handle,” said chairperson Matz.

A total of nine huge trees, mostly lodgepole, came down in a couple of different windstorms. One might imaine gigantic, uprooted tree foundations with caskets ripped out of the ground, but fortunately, that was not the case.

“Yes, there were graves disturbed but no one’s remains were disturbed," Matz said. "There were headstones moved. The crew was very respectful when removing the stumps and replaced what dirt they could and reset the headstones.”

The crew that Matz is referring to is the Mineral County Road Department. Jason McLees, country road foreman, took a crew of three to the west end recently to take care of stumps from 2021, along with this year’s crop for a full day.

Luke Boyce, Terry Erickson and Jeff Mask, all county employees, drove an excavator and dump truck to the west end and started pulling the tree stumps.

“They were big. Only two would fit in the dump truck at a time,” stated McLeese.

He said that Helen Tooker let them unload them on her property so they could burn them.

“It’s nice to give back to some of the county properties. We also hauled a load of topsoil up to them. They do a good job up there,” Tooker smiled.

Last August a new columbarium was installed and dedicated to a loved and respected west-end resident.

“Shirley Garr was one of our earliest board members after the revitalization in 2009. She was an incredibly hard worker and devoted many volunteer hours to the cemetery and the fund raisers, besides being heavily involved in many west end civic activities. She had boundless energy and was lost suddenly to a heart attack, and we miss her greatly," said Matz. “We do a spring cleanup before Memorial Day every year, but the numbers helping with that has dwindled. It’s mostly a small core of wonderful volunteers who attempt to do all that needs doing.”