Located on Cemetery Road, it is the oldest known cemetery in the Flathead Valley. The county has administered it since 1893, but it was already being used in the late 1880s by residents of the long-gone riverboat town of Demersville that was established around 1887 and flourished for several years on the Flathead River before Kalispell was founded and overtook it.
While the Clerk and Recorder Office has been in charge of selling and documenting lots in Demersville Cemetery, record-keeping through the decades has been hit and miss, Clerk and Recorder Paula Robinson said.
The methods of selling lots changed several times, with records sometimes kept on index cards and other times on maps.
There are several cemetery lot maps, all with different configurations.
We’ve had so many hands in the pot,” Robinson told the county commissioners on Thursday. “Lot sales have been kept track of haphazardly ... it’s just a mess.”
Sonar mapping needs to be completed to determine the locations of unmarked graves and empty lots. Through the years, some people were buried there with no records made of their specific burial sites.
A lapse in record-keeping that began in the late 1920s resulted in some gravesites accidentally being opened for burials in later years because the plot wasn’t marked as used, indicating it was supposed to be empty.
A few years ago a moratorium was imposed on most burials until the county could determine where people have been buried.
That moratorium remains in place, Scott said.
Demersville Cemetery serves as Flathead County’s “potter’s field” where the indigent are buried. Robinson said there are two to four pauper burials annually.
There isn’t much room left at Demersville Cemetery for indigent burials, but the county does own some property at Woodlawn Cemetery that could be used for such burials, she said.
Article and photos courtesy of Daily Interlake
While the Clerk and Recorder Office has been in charge of selling and documenting lots in Demersville Cemetery, record-keeping through the decades has been hit and miss, Clerk and Recorder Paula Robinson said.
The methods of selling lots changed several times, with records sometimes kept on index cards and other times on maps.
There are several cemetery lot maps, all with different configurations.
We’ve had so many hands in the pot,” Robinson told the county commissioners on Thursday. “Lot sales have been kept track of haphazardly ... it’s just a mess.”
Sonar mapping needs to be completed to determine the locations of unmarked graves and empty lots. Through the years, some people were buried there with no records made of their specific burial sites.
A lapse in record-keeping that began in the late 1920s resulted in some gravesites accidentally being opened for burials in later years because the plot wasn’t marked as used, indicating it was supposed to be empty.
A few years ago a moratorium was imposed on most burials until the county could determine where people have been buried.
That moratorium remains in place, Scott said.
Demersville Cemetery serves as Flathead County’s “potter’s field” where the indigent are buried. Robinson said there are two to four pauper burials annually.
There isn’t much room left at Demersville Cemetery for indigent burials, but the county does own some property at Woodlawn Cemetery that could be used for such burials, she said.
Article and photos courtesy of Daily Interlake
Transcribed internment records
County to Begin Pursuit of Demersville Cemetery Board
Article used courtesy of Flathead Beacon
The Demersville Cemetery is one of the oldest graveyards in Flathead County, and now local officials are taking the first steps to ensuring the cemetery remains a historically accurate and modernly up-kept place.
The Flathead County commissioners gave the go-ahead for those interested in better preserving the cemetery to begin the process of creating a board to oversee the cemetery’s maintenance and historical record.
While the commission didn’t actually create the board during its Dec. 19 discussion, the commissioners agreed that interested parties can start workshopping ideas, and then can come back to the commission with a plan.
Commissioner Cal Scott brought up the idea, noting that it would likely lead to creating a cemetery district.
Flathead County Clerk and Recorder Paula Robinson told the commission that her office has been historically responsible for the Demersville Cemetery, which is one of the last remaining pieces of Demersville.
Demersville was a boomtown in the late 1880s, located south of where Kalispell is today. It was supposed to have a train depot, but the town almost immediately became a ghost town after the Great Northern Railway decided to put its division point in modern-day Kalispell.
Many of the town’s original inhabitants are buried in the Demersville Cemetery, offering a glimpse of history of Flathead County’s beginnings.
Robinson said the record keeping for the cemetery has been “haphazard” in the past, with four or five maps and multiple surveys of the same space. This has resulted in confusion about who or what is actually underground.
“We don’t know where everyone is buried,” Robinson told the commission.
Maintenance has also been a bit of an issue in the past, and a board would be able to keep it on schedule. There are other unique challenges at the Demersville Cemetery, such as persistent lilac bushes that grow up through graves and cannot be pulled up for fear of pulling up the grave and its contents as well.
Robinson said the cemetery would also benefit from a sonar project to find out where people are buried. This would help create an accurate map, which would also show where there is open space; the Demersville Cemetery is also where the county buries its indigent dead.
“It is one of the oldest cemeteries in Flathead County and it is our responsibility,” Robinson told the commission.
Scott said he would help spearhead the new project, and that he was already in touch with a group of people interested in the preserving cemetery.
The Flathead County commissioners gave the go-ahead for those interested in better preserving the cemetery to begin the process of creating a board to oversee the cemetery’s maintenance and historical record.
While the commission didn’t actually create the board during its Dec. 19 discussion, the commissioners agreed that interested parties can start workshopping ideas, and then can come back to the commission with a plan.
Commissioner Cal Scott brought up the idea, noting that it would likely lead to creating a cemetery district.
Flathead County Clerk and Recorder Paula Robinson told the commission that her office has been historically responsible for the Demersville Cemetery, which is one of the last remaining pieces of Demersville.
Demersville was a boomtown in the late 1880s, located south of where Kalispell is today. It was supposed to have a train depot, but the town almost immediately became a ghost town after the Great Northern Railway decided to put its division point in modern-day Kalispell.
Many of the town’s original inhabitants are buried in the Demersville Cemetery, offering a glimpse of history of Flathead County’s beginnings.
Robinson said the record keeping for the cemetery has been “haphazard” in the past, with four or five maps and multiple surveys of the same space. This has resulted in confusion about who or what is actually underground.
“We don’t know where everyone is buried,” Robinson told the commission.
Maintenance has also been a bit of an issue in the past, and a board would be able to keep it on schedule. There are other unique challenges at the Demersville Cemetery, such as persistent lilac bushes that grow up through graves and cannot be pulled up for fear of pulling up the grave and its contents as well.
Robinson said the cemetery would also benefit from a sonar project to find out where people are buried. This would help create an accurate map, which would also show where there is open space; the Demersville Cemetery is also where the county buries its indigent dead.
“It is one of the oldest cemeteries in Flathead County and it is our responsibility,” Robinson told the commission.
Scott said he would help spearhead the new project, and that he was already in touch with a group of people interested in the preserving cemetery.