Lone Pine Cemetery, Ariel, Washington

On a recent trip back from Mount St Helens I stopped by the Lone Pine Cemetery just outside Ariel, Washington. I had never stopped here before.
Once in the cemetery it is quite interesting to see with the old section surrounded on two sides by a newer section






I walked down the hill to get a photo of the Cemetery sign and on my walk down I noticed two piles of rocks and some flowers next to a Rhododendron.









There at the bottom of the hill at the lowest point and the farthest away from the graves at the top of the hill were two graves. They were for "Indian Jim" and "Indian George".








As I stood looking at Indian Jim's and Indian George's Monuments I thought that we had come quite a ways since these two were buried here. At least we wouldn't treat these individuals like this today.








And then I got home and heard the news that several Congressmen and other individuals were called names in Washington, DC. And I thought, that no, we really haven't come very far from the days that Indian Jim and Indian George were treated as lower class people, buried at the bottom of the hill, while the good people of Ariel were buried at the top.

I wish I were wrong.

David.

The Dark Divide is an area of spectacular scenery seldom visited, and little known. It is located between Mounts St Helens and Adams in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
So, what does the Dark Divide in Washington have to do with a cemetery in Portland, Oregon? A lot actually. Because it was while I was on a hike in this wild country that I was introduced to the website findagrave.com by my hiking companion and also genealogist. Had I not been told about that website I probably would not have started posting my photos of tombstones to that website. Had I not started posting photos to findagrave I wouldn't have asked Eric if he wanted to start censusing Multnomah Park Cemetery in our neighborhood of Lents, Portland. Had we not started our censusing project we wouldn't have learned about the Morningside Hospital and the patients and their families in Alaska.
One thing leads to another for a reason.
Dave