Monday Feb. 18, is an informal day of clean up at HCC. My son Craig will be there sawing branches and the wood is free to those who want it. Please bring garbage bags, and for those who can, pickups to haul debris.

Please, get out and do whatever you can. Remember that we operate with virtually no funds and at the moment no caretaker. It's everyone's responsibility to help.

We want to thank the anonymous person or people who have been doing their own clean-ups at the cemetery. It has been a big help, and your work is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

The cemetery's gate will be open for Easter. And if someone would like to work on the cemetery they could pick up all the old artificial flowers except any brand new ones. Also they could carefully spade up around the roses and get the grass out of them. They only need to dig up about a foot around them.

Please bring any tools, weed-eaters, or other equipment you can. Bags, and hauling will be taken care of. Keep in mind, we have no power...yet.

Tell those you know, and if this day is successful we'll set up others, hopefully more before Memorial Day.

We apologize, but it couldn't be avoided. Thanks to those who have offered assistance. Our groundskepper is still the ringleader on maintenance issues, so we'll let you know when he can organize another clean up. It should be soon.

Again, please remember this whole thing is all volunteer run. That means outside issues can and do come up from time to time. We can always use more volunteers, so if you want to make a contributions, whether it be time, equipment, money, etc., please let us know.

Gary and Linda Takis took several cub scouts from Pack 437 out to the cemetery on May 22, 2006, to place the American flags on veterans' graves, do a clean up, and to do a flag raising ceremony. You can view the photos here of their activities. We also want to thank Robin Sinclair and Greg Hays at Ahern Rentals for donating the time and effort to re-string the flagpole. Great job to all involved!

Finally, our grounds keeper has been a busy beaver at the cemetery. He took some photos on May 5, 2006, of the grounds, so you can see how far the cemetery has come. View the photos here.

Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to the improvement of the cemetery grounds. Your assistance has been invaluable and greaty appreciated. Thank you, all.

For a few before and after photos and for information on how to donate, please see the before and after - grounds keeping update page.

In other news, we've registered a new domain name for this site, and have changed a few things, to reflect our new status as the group which now runs the cemetery, instead of just the 'families/friends of' group we've been running. Everything else, including our postal address, email addresses, etc., will remain the same. Both domains -- columbiancemetery.org. Both domains -- fohcc.org and columbiancemetery.org -- point to the same site, and both will remain fully functional.

Also, we've now added a Cafepress online store, where you can buy Columbian Cemetery calendars, t-shirts, coffee mugs, bags, and a bunch of other stuff, all to benefit the cemetery. Buy some nifty stuff, and help us make the cemetery better. We appreciate the support!

We want to thank everyone for their continued support. It's been a long road, but well worth it.

Also note -- we still have copies of the Memorial Day video and DVD, so if you're interested, see the post below.

We'd also like to thank Tom and Meredith Gilbert for all the good things they're doing for the cemetery. They've gone out of their way to help, and it is greatly appreciated.

Thanks to Linda Lathrop for the photos. Please click on each image to see the bigger version.

A meeting was held March 9 with ODOT about their plans that could affect Columbian. They listened to our concerns, but it will be some time before final decisions are made. They are in what they call the impact phase, which is hearing and studying how the project could impact adjacent locations by any means. We had a good turn out of our people, and the consensus was clear that no impact is the only acceptable choice for the families. However, there is much to be done in hopes of making that reality. They asked that all who have opinions send them in. They can be mailed, emailed, or phoned to Kate Deane or anyone on the I-5 Delta to Lombard Project.

We are also in need of more history of the cemetery to present, and would appreciate anything people might have on the cemetery and the people buried there. There will be future meetings which we'll post on this site. Please email the site with any questions you might have and we'll try to answer them. Preserving Columbian in all ways is a must, and we all need to work together.

Please see ODOT's web site for more information on the expansion.

The person who maintains the site, Celine, has health issues which prevent her from getting up information in a timely manner, and we have a lot of info yet to go on the site. You would get full credit for your work as a contributor, and would be helping many people in many ways.

If you're interested in volunteering and can devote a few hours a week to the site (how much time would be completely up to you), please let us know at families@fohcc.org. Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.

• Farrell, William L.
• Force, George Washington
• Force, Susan Jane
• Windle, John

More bios are yet to be added.

Added: a link to an overhead photo from Portlandmaps.com to the Maps, Weather, And Other Info page.

We're working on adding several obituaries, so please look for those as they're added this weekend and early next week.

• Frank Clark Tufts
• James Hamilton Tufts
• Jennie A. Williams

• Margaret Peoples
• Merrill Peoples
• Wendall Arthur Shields

• Frank Bradshaw
• Earl W. Carr
• Belle Graves

Also added -- new views of the following stones:

• Peter Helser
• Nancy Griffith Love
• John Mock / Mary Mock
• Mary White

And I went out on a limb and actually alphabetized the Tombstones - G page.