Karen Bouton recognized for her efforts<\/b><\/p>\n
Karen Bouton led the way through Saar Pioneer Cemetery like a tour guide pointing out the stars\u2019 homes in Hollywood.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Willis family\u2019s here,\u201d she said, pointing to one side. Then she gestured to the other side. \u201cThat\u2019s the Iddings family.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHere\u2019s our famous tree guy,\u201d she announced at the top of the rise. Beside her a giant tree trunk had half-enveloped a small, rounded headstone. The name on the front of the stone was buried inside the tree, but a memorial stone nearby proclaimed that here lay Civil War veteran Lewis Warren.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question is: Who was planted first, the tree or the guy?\u201d Bouton quipped.<\/p>\n
After four years of volunteer labor at the cemetery, Bouton knows this place and all its inhabitants well, and can list the family connections and brief life stories of most of them right off the top of her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone has a story,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The cemetery itself has a<\/p>\n
story, which started during flood season in 1873. Peter Saar\u2019s wife, Margaret, had just died. Unable to reach the town cemetery due to the flooding in the valley, Saar buried his wife on the hillside by their homestead. A founding member of what is now the Kent United Methodist Church, Saar left the cemetery to the church when he died. It was used for burials for the next 76 years, with the final known burial in 1949.<\/p>\n
Today the cemetery lies like a time capsule buried between WinCo Foods parking lot and State Route 167 \u2014 one acre frozen in time, quiet and peaceful, while cars zoom past unaware of its existence.<\/p>\n
Genealogists to the rescue<\/p>\n
Saar Cemetery first came to Bouton\u2019s attention four years ago, after a 2004 Kent Reporter article pointed out the cemetery\u2019s neglect: headstones missing or broken; others engulfed in an onslaught of blackberry, periwinkle and ivy vines.<\/p>\n
A handful of locals still tended their families\u2019 graves, but on the whole, the place had been abandoned.<\/p>\n
When the South King County Genealogical Society saw the article, its members decided to do something about it. A SKCGS member and avid genealogist, Bouton volunteered to lead the clean-up effort. She thought it would take no more than a few weekends of work parties.<\/p>\n
\u201cI jumped in blind, let me tell you,\u201d she said, chuckling at her ignorance of the enormous task before her.<\/p>\n
Four years later, she\u2019s still out there, leading the battle to reclaim the cemetery from the forces of nature \u2014 spreading vines, clinging lichen and eroding rain.<\/p>\n
She and her team of volunteers have accomplished much. Tombstones, once buried under blackberries, are now visible. A few broken headstones have been fixed; others have been replaced with memorial markers. Bouton herself has cleaned lichen from several blackened stones, leaving them white and legible again.<\/p>\n
Much remains to be done. Bouton hopes to find or replace more of the headstones, and to erect a group memorial stone for the others. She\u2019s asking anyone with information about what may have happened to some of the missing stones to contact her. Two missing stones have already been found in old sheds.<\/p>\n
There are other headstones needing cleaning, a delicate process requiring many gallons of water \u2014 all of which has to be hauled up in buckets to the cemetery.<\/p>\n
The worst battle, though, is the constant fight against blackberries and other weeds. And that battle will be over for Bouton any day now, thanks to a $15,000 grant from King County.<\/p>\n
Help from the county<\/p>\n
The county approved the grant last November: $5,000 annually for the next three years to help with the cemetery\u2019s maintenance. The grant came after Bouton made a presentation about the cemetery at a King County Council town hall meeting in Sammamish, a meeting that County Councilmember Julia Patterson was chairing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen (Patterson) heard it was in her district, she was out (at the cemetery) in a couple of weeks, and said, \u2018yes, you need the money,\u2019\u201d said Julie Koler, preservation officer for King County.<\/p>\n
As of May 20, Bouton said she was still checking her mailbox daily for the grant check. Once she has the money in hand, Bouton said she\u2019ll be ready to hire a professional landscaper, first to finish off the blackberry-whacking, and then to come out once a month through 2011 to mow, weed and keep the place tidy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be kind of nice not to spend my whole summer out there,\u201d said Bouton, who has dedicated most of her free time for the past three summers to work in the cemetery.<\/p>\n
Excellence recognized<\/p>\n
Bouton\u2019s work gained more recognition from the county on May 13, when Patterson presented her with the John D. Spellman Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation.<\/p>\n
Named after the King County executive who started the county\u2019s Historic Preservation Program, the award is given to individuals or organizations that have done something remarkable in the field of historic preservation, according to Koler.<\/p>\n
And while Bouton\u2019s work at the Saar Cemetery is something remarkable on its own, she also earned kudos from the King County Landmarks Commission for bringing to light the plight of older cemeteries throughout the county.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was one of the key people who brought to the attention of the commission the real, dire strait of many of these places,\u201d Koler said of Bouton. \u201cShe was the third person in about five months who had come to me and said, \u2018Oh my gosh, we need help.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to Bouton\u2019s and others\u2019 pleas, King County is now launching a Historic Cemetery Preservation Initiative to identify and find ways to help restore and maintain the county\u2019s historic burial sites.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know of 80 (cemeteries) that are documented,\u201d said Koler. \u201cSome of those are in really poor condition, very overgrown, headstones missing and vandalized.\u201d<\/p>\n
County workers will try to visit and document the respective states of all 80 known cemeteries this summer, Koler said. They\u2019re also putting out a plea for information about forgotten burial sites \u2014 family burial grounds and other small, out-of-the-way plots that may have been missed.<\/p>\n
Once all the needs are clear, Koler said the county will begin looking at ways to help private groups restore the cemeteries, possibly through grants and tax incentives.<\/p>\n
As for Bouton, you\u2019ll probably still see her off and on at the cemetery this summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be out there cleaning (the headstones),\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
For more information about the Saar Pioneer Cemetery or the South King County Genealogical Society, contact the society at 425-235-8076 or visit the Web site www.skcgs.org.<\/p>\n
For information about King County\u2019s Historic Cemetery Preservation Initiative, contact Julie Koler at 206-296-8689.<\/p>\n
Staff writer Christine Shultz can be reached at 253-872-6600, ext. 5056, or cshultz@reporternewspapers.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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