![]() ![]() ![]() but getting to the burial sites is sometimes a little tricky. Mitchell, who, ironically, wasn't buried at the cemetery.Ĭleaning forgotten cemeteries easy compared to journey to reach gravesĬleaning neglected cemeteries isn't usually a problem for the Between the Rivers Preservation Organization. ![]() This monument was erected in honor of the wives of D.A. "It's kinda humbling when you read those tombstones and think 'I'm just a little speck in the history of Between the Rivers.'"Ī most unusual headstone greeted the cemetery cleaners Saturday at Chambers Cemetery in the Trigg County portion of LBL. The weekly workforces is made up mostly of Lyon and Trigg county residents who either lived between the Kentucky and Cumberland rivers, or had family ties to the area that was turned into a recreation area three decades ago.įor some of them, it's been a reunion with old friends and a return to a land that holds many painful memories of the years when families were forced to abandon their homes to make way for the flooding of the rivers and creation of LBL.įor all of them, it's a learning experience about old homesteads, as the cemeteries speak of the land's rich history, said Sylvia Cotton. "It's amazing how much work" they get done in so little time, Canon added. "You look around and it doesn't look like a very large percentage of people are working" at any one time, said Beale Canon of Saturday's 40 or so workers, who renewed the Chamber Cemetery in a couple of hours. While more than half of the 220 or so cemeteries in LBL have been continuously cared for by families or other groups since the Tennessee Valley Authority took over in the mid -1960-s more than 100 graveyards have been neglected so long some are unrecognizable.įallen and rotting trees, unruly plants and thick mats of leaves clutter the old cemeteries, but the group unearths each cemetery with a whirlwind of chainsaws, axes and rakes to bring back to life each plot of land set aside for the dead. The 45-grave Chambers Cemetery and scores of others like it in 170,000-acre Land Between the lakes recreation area are getting a heavy dose of tender loving care from the Between the Rivers Preservation Organization, which former to protect and preserve the area's history. Thanks to these volunteer preservationists, the dead won't be forgotten, and their ancestors may now be able to find their gravesites. ![]() "They might have been leaders of their community." "Somebody loved them sometime," Stafford said, glancing at the makeshift PVC pipe crosses erected at previously unmarked graves. "This nearly just brings tears to my eyes," said 83 year old Louise Stafford after supervising the spotting of unmarked graves Saturday morning at the chambers Cemetery overlooking Kentucky Lake. Lunie Oliver hammered the final gravemarker into the soft earth, pounding out the message: The Between the Rivers Preservation Organization has reclaimed another forgotten cemetery.Ī moment of satisfying triumph after years of neglect, but a moment of thoughtful sadness about trigg County souls buried a century ago. Mapping the Cemeteries Raking "At Rest" "Humbling" An Unknown Friend "It's kinda humbling when you read those tombstones and think 'I'm just a little speck in the history of Between the Rivers.'" - Sylvia Canon Homer Barnett of Princeton sinks a cross into the ground to mark a grave at the Chambers Cemetery in the Trigg County portion of the Land Between the lakes 'SOMEBODY LOVED THEM' ![]()
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