BROOKINGS – At first glance, the Cemetery Management Seminar may sound fairly macabre, but Liz Gorham says it will have wide appeal to genealogists, history buffs and gardeners, and could have statewide implications.
“It’s a little bit of everything that goes into making a cemetery,” she said.
The seminar is June 8-10 at the McCrory Gardens Education & Visitor Center and is sponsored by the Brookings Area Master Gardeners and the Brookings Area Genealogical Society. Gorham is a member of both organizations.
“You do not have to be a Master Gardener or BAGS member. We welcome all,” she added.
Participants can decide how much of the seminar to attend, from selecting individual sessions to attending all three days. Thursday’s and Friday’s sessions start at 9:30 a.m. and will run to 5 p.m. with a lunch break. Saturday starts at 8:30 a.m.
Cost is $35, including meals, to attend if you contact Gorham before June 8. The cost rises to $45 on the first day of the seminar.
Gorham may be contacted at lizgorham616@gmail.com or 605-697-7917. Send checks, made out to Cemetery Management Seminar, to Gorham at 102 17th Ave. S.; Brookings, SD 57006.
“This is the first one; we hope it will be an annual event,” Gorham said.
Thursday
Thursday’s first session at 9:30 a.m. will be how to pack up and move a historic cemetery.
“There’s lots of mishaps with cemeteries, and we felt it was very important for the general public and others to know that you don’t just take cemeteries for granted,” Gorham said.
Gorham is part of a group that helps restore old cemeteries.
Members plan to restore the Fountain Cemetery in Brookings County and want to open it again so families with a connection to it can continue to be buried there.
“We’re gonna tell the Prairie Cemetery story,” Gorham said.
The Prairie Cemetery in Brookings has been restored, with gravestones being erected for the 16 people known to be buried there, and was dedicated last summer. Daffodils mark the graves as a sign of remembrance.
“Since then, we’ve also added a bench ... it was an anonymous gift and we really appreciate it. It is so nice to just sit there and wonder what happened in that area,” Gorham said.
In the Thursday afternoon session, the organizers will discuss the importance of telling family members about your final burial wishes and what could happen if you don’t.
There will be break-out groups discussing:
• Legalities of cemeteries when the church that owns it disbands;
• The Tehlula Lee Foundation, which raises funds to help families purchase headstones for children who have died. There are 75 children in just Brookings who do not have headstones, according to tehlulaleefoundation.yolasite.com online;
• Orland, South Dakota, which lost support for its cemetery when a church closed;
• Ground-penetrating radar or mapping and cemetery software.
Another session will cover genealogy gems, what you can use to research your own genealogy.
Friday
Friday starts at 9:30 a.m. with a session on how to discover and manage new burial spaces. There will also be a tribute to Barbara Behrend and Larry Cool. “Both have been significant in the mapping of their cemeteries throughout the area,” Gorham said.
“Then we’re going to ask the question: Do we organize and form a Cemetery Association,” she said. They especially want input from sextons, funeral directors and police for safety concerns.
After the break will come sessions on cemetery gardens by Lisa Zuhlke, a horticulture specialist with Lowe’s; cemetery symbolism by Mary De Leeuw; and historic preservation by Sen. Dave Senjen, whose great-grandparents are buried in Prairie Cemetery.
About 3:30 p.m., the group will take a gardening field trip to Prairie Cemetery at 20th Street South and Western Avenue South; First Lutheran Cemetery, north on Eighth Street South, where they will use ground penetrating radar to map unused portions; and Greenwood Cemetery for tips on repairs and cleaning headstones.
Special Saturday
“Saturday will be a special day to us,” Gorham said.
Starting at 8:30 a.m., the group will travel to Oakwood Lake State Park, where they will use ground-penetrating radar.
“We’re investigating a 500- to 1,000-year-old Indian burial mound,” Gorham said. “This will be very interesting, and the park is very excited about having us do it there. I think the whole state system will be anxiously awaiting what we find out.”
Other opportunities
For those who can’t make the Cemetery Management Seminar, there are still resources to access, including:
• The Brookings Historical Society, which records the obituaries of people from The Brookings Register and tracks where they are buried. The Historical Society is located in the Brookings County Museum in Volga;
• Gorham is at the library as a researcher from 10 a.m. to noon on the second Saturday of the month; and
• The Brookings Area Genealogical Society meets on the third Monday of every month.
“We are looking for volunteers to help us with the Fountain project,” Gorham said. They hope to get into the area when the weather dries out a bit because the road is poor and will also need help maintaining the road in the future.
Gorham hopes people will make donations to help them with their projects, and donations are helping with the seminar, too.
It’s important to maintain cemeteries, she added.
“Respect for the dead,” Gorham said. “We believe everybody has the right to exist in our communities, and we want to honor them, just as we honor everyone on Memorial Day. A tribute to their memory because these are pioneers, especially in the Prairie Cemetery, they were early pioneers.”
Contact Jodelle Greiner at jgreiner@brookingsregister.com.
