Historic Columbian Cemetery

Matt and I combined two things I've wanted to do for awhile: explore the Historic Columbian Cemetery near our house and also to forage for wild greens.

This cemetery is not under anyone's jurisdiction. The web site says it is owned by the families of all who are buried there. Thus, the cemetery is rather rough around the edges, though someone works now and then, as these left behind tools testify.

This sign has fallen down.

I took this picture because it is very interesting to me how the Scandinavian population didn't really take hold in Portland the way they did in Seattle. We have Norse Halls and such, but Seattle has a whole historically Scandinavian neighborhood.

Portland's Scandinavians just didn't seem to have that much staying power.

This was an interesting grave that I need to research more. Here we have the father dying in early 1967.

Also buried is a son who died three days before him.

Another son who died a few days before that.

And a daughter who died the same day as her brother. I need to check back in the Oregonian or Oregon Journal for those dates to see if I can get more of the story. Google searches haven't yielded much.

Though it seems as if no one visits this cemetery, apparently people still do come to place flowers on graves.

I'm guessing these bodies have been moved elsewhere.

At times it was eerie. The cemetery is bordered by the walls of buildings on two sides, a freeway overpass on one side and busy Columbia Boulevard on the remaining side. Matt and I pinpointed the weird energy as being a "not so much dead people, but live people committing crimes here" sort of a vibe. We found a woman's purse that had been stolen and then abandoned, for example.

In one part, the grass had yet to be mowed. The web site has a plea for a new mower.

Matt searching for cat's ear.

Matt consulting our excellent guide: Edible Wild Plants, which I highly recommend to anyone with the slightest interest in foraging for food.

Holding dandelion greens.

I was quite excited to find this marker.

At one point, this was the city boundary.

First attempt at self-portrait. Oops. I forgot I zoomed.

A bit more of us.