The owners of Mountain View Cemetery in Centralia have started an online fundraiser to help replace stolen lawn equipment and fund restoration work.
Established in 1899, the cemetery sits …
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The owners of Mountain View Cemetery in Centralia have started an online fundraiser to help replace stolen lawn equipment and fund restoration work.
Established in 1899, the cemetery sits on 28.3 acres at 1113 Caveness Drive in Centralia.
Owners Father Gary Graveline Sr. and Rector Stephen Morrison purchased the cemetery in May 2024 after Lewis County foreclosed on the property in January 2023 and repossessed it as the owner fell three years behind on property taxes.
Mountain View Cemetery’s previous owner took all of the cemetery’s lawn maintenance equipment with him when the property was foreclosed, leading Graveline and Morrison to purchase new lawn mowers and weed whackers to maintain the cemetery grounds.
On Aug. 12, five days after Mountain View Cemetery received its certificate of authority for the property and began offering internment rights, someone attempted to break into the cemetery’s locked storage shed, damaging it in the process.
Eight days later, on Aug. 20, unidentified burglars returned to the property and finished the job, stealing hundreds of dollars of lawn equipment from the locked shed on the property, according to Centralia Police Department call logs.
With the stolen equipment still unaccounted for, Mountain View Cemetery’s owners are looking to purchase new equipment before restoration work continues in the spring.
The cemetery is looking to raise $10,000 to hire employees to restore and maintain the cemetery grounds, but initial donations will go to replacing the stolen equipment.
Donations can be made online at https://gofund.me/7337eabb.
“To restore and maintain this historic cemetery, we need more hands to help bring it back to its former glory,” Graveline said in the fundraiser’s description. “Our goal with this fundraiser is to hire additional staff and provide resources to revitalize the cemetery, ensuring it remains a peaceful and beautiful place where families can lay their loved ones to rest with dignity and respect.”
The fundraiser’s website includes information on current ongoing restoration projects, including efforts to renovate a late 1920s-era structure and convert a historic brick building into an enclosed columbarium.
As the property sat in limbo, residents established a “Restore Mountain View Cemetery” Facebook page and volunteered efforts to maintain and improve the land.
For more than a year, around a dozen volunteers visited the property three or four times per week with weed-whackers, lawnmowers and garbage bags to restore gravesites.
Anyone interested in volunteering with Mountain View Cemetery for grounds maintenance work this spring is encouraged to call the cemetery at 360-506-0106 or contact staff via the cemetery’s website, https://mountainviewcemeterywa.com/contact-us, or Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/MountainViewCemeteryWashington/.
Cemetery grounds are open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the winter and 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the summer. Office hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.