Well, I had my first meeting with Wilhelmina, Office Manager at Eden Cemetery last month to find out what their preservation needs are, and got the answer that I though I would. EVERYTHING!

When told you need everything for a cemetery project that has 85,000 interments on 53 acres of land, I admit that I was initially overwhelmed. Cemetery Preservation projects are big jobs, but reality sets in very fast when you standing on site, and as far as you can see is rolling hills of land and grave markers. You start asking, “do you really know what you are about to get yourself into”?

It is said that a good challenge builds character, so I am moving right along. Wilhelmina and I drew up the first draft of all the wants and needs for the cemetery. We came up with the following categories: Grounds Preservation, Record Preservation, Administration Capacity Building, Historical Documentation, and Public Programs. Within these categories are laundry lists of things that need to be done, but we also identified at least two immediate priorities in each.

Immediate Priorities

1) Grounds Preservation:
- Fencing For the Entire Site
- Repair Broken or Over Turned Grave Markers
- Record Preservation:
- Create an Archival Preservation Program
- Update Computers and Software
- Administration Capacity Building:

2) Revive The Friends of Historic Eden Cemetery

3) Create a Website
- Historical Documentation:
- Research Eden Cemetery’s History Completely
- Review Interments Records to Identify the Famous

4) Public Programs:
- Create Educational and Interpretative Programs that would Renew Interest in Eden Cemetery.

What Eden Cemetery really needs is a multi-phase Cemetery Master Plan that would incorporate all their present and future needs. In order to jump-start this cemetery preservation project the revival of the nonprofit group “Friends of Historic Eden
Cemetery” has to begin immediately. The last big project Eden Cemetery sponsored
was their 100th Anniversary in 2002.

This preservation project is a multi-million dollar venture and the proper fundraising apparatus has to be in place to raise and receive funds. The new board members MUST be a cross section of people from Corporate America, the Historical & Preservation Industries, Family Members of the Interred, Academia, Government Officials, and Cemetery Preservation Activists that have the ability to raise money, bring resources to the table and have a vision. It is equally important to reach out to the community through memberships in the “Friend of Historic Eden Cemetery.

The great thing about this project is that Wilhelmina has a good vision on where Eden Cemetery should be heading over the next two decades. We already talked about building a $10 million dollar Eden Memorial Park Cemetery, Education & Interpretive Center, and know what tract of land it should be located on.

You have to dream big – because History Matters!