McCloud’s Annual Cemetery Cleanup

There is a yearly ritual a couple decades old of McCloud people coming together to clean up the McCloud Cemetery in preparation for the Memorial Day service that is held there every year. 

For some, like Bill Pieruccini, it is also a memorial day for him as he cleans up the gravesites and gets to visit his family members of three generations that have their final resting place there.

Long time resident and forester, Bob Gray, started this yearly event when he was the president of the McCloud Cemetery Association. It is now his forever resting place. The cemetery, which was started in March 1909, sits under the canopy of pine trees that are now over-mature and dying. The pine needles pile up throughout the year covering up everything. Last year they hauled away a pile of pine needles 7 feet high and 50 feet long to the town’s green waste. 

 Lifelong resident Ron Berryman, also a forester, says that they cannot cut the trees down around and in the cemetery because they would land on tombstones, destroying them. “It is nice that the McCloud Alumni get together each year for this cemetery cleanup project. But this project is open to anyone. Some people come from far away because their roots are here. Today, we have some McCloud residents that have no ties, but just want to help their community and brought their young children to learn about community support.” 

 6-year-old Vivienne says, “Our mom saw this on Facebook and thought it would be good for us to come and help”

A new helping hand that showed up this year at the Cemetery Cleanup Project was Terra Fuego Resource Foundation. They have been working on a 480-acre prescribed burn around the cemetery through Pacific Forest Land Trust and since they were there with their Firebox Type 3 Dozer Skid Steer, they jumped in to help.

After raking up all the pine needles, everyone is treated to homemade cookies from the McCloud Garden Club and barbecued hotdogs along with chips and drinks courtesy of the Cemetery Association for all their work. And this is when everyone sits under the shade of the trees to visit and share stories, finding out the history of who’s who and who is related through the years in McCloud. 

P.S. The difference between a cemetery and a graveyard is that a graveyard is smaller and associated with a church.

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