Paulina Elementary School - Maury Mountain Cemetery
Paulina Elementary student assists with marker repair.
The setting exudes history, with traces of the Meek Trail visible from the 1885 Maury Mountain Cemetery. When the eleven 5th to 8th grade students of Paulina Elementary in Crook County decided to give back to the community, the poorly maintained cemetery became their project. The cemetery’s historical significance and its need for some TLC made it the ideal service project. The hands on effort was tied to the 8th grade State Bench Mark “to identify and understand significant events, developments and people in the history of Oregon from post American Revolution until 1900 relating to the upper community of the Paulina Valley.”
For the first phase of the project was a model of organization with students assigned as a historian, a daily events recorder, a quality control person and two team leaders each with three assistants. The group cleaned the markers and recorded the names of over 27 graves.
The second phase of the project and the portion funded by the Historic Cemeteries Program grant included cleaning up debris, repairing a headstone and working with the Prineville Hotshot Crew to dig and gravel a pathway to the cemetery. The students truly embraced the project, soaking up the history while working to preserve the cemetery.
