The Selah Kiwanis Club and volunteers worked Saturday to install new headstones for Selah’s pioneers in the Old Pioneer Cemetery on Harrison Road.

“There are still headstones without names,” said Kiwanis Club member, Larry Watkins. “We’ve researched online and county records.”

Watkins said members of the now defunct Selah Garden Club researched names in the 70s when they replaced grave markers. Those markers, made of wood, were rotting at their base and tipping over.

There are 41 gravesites at the old cemetery, which was overgrown until the Kiwanis Club and volunteers organized by
Save-On-Foods employee Kathy Smith, trimmed trees and cut weeds in the cemetery in April.

“Everyone has been so generous and worked too hard to see this happen,” Watkins said.

Jerry Steinert, owner of Statuary Garden in Naches, had his workers make 35 concrete markers weighing 22 pounds each.
He donated two markers to make it 37, and donated the concrete bench, which weighs 700 pounds. Mike Rosenbush of Rosenbush Graphics, donated the vinyl Kiwanis logo for the bench seat.

After the clean-up in April, Save-On-Foods manager, Ed Ernst, donated hotdogs and the barbecue for a fundraiser for the markers. Franz Bakery donated the buns.

“It’s been a great project for all concerned,” Watkins said.

The Kiwanis Club, with the assistance of Steinert and his employees, put new painted headstones in place on Saturday, along with the cement bench placed under an elm tree at the cemetery.

“Hopefully, these will last a good long time,” Watkins said. “We thought the pioneers deserved better than what they were getting.”

Kiwanis Club member Wendy Culver said they will paint the new headstones with the names of those pioneers they can identify.