November 3, 2023 |
Photo – Elk Mountain Cemetery – by Matt Copeland Bigfoot99
Work to expand the Elk Mountain Cemetery is nearly complete.
Last year, Elk Mountain resident Brett Larson reformed the town’s cemetery board. Larson’s first act as chairman of the cemetery board was to have a detailed map made of the town’s graveyard. Decades of poorly supervised plot sales left the town without a clear idea of who is buried where. Also, the cemetery was running out of available burial sites.
Larson hired Dave Hammond, of Hammond Land Survey, in Laramie, to create an up-to-date map of existing graves and mark out space for additional burial plots. Work on the project began this summer after the snow melted and Hammond was able to physically visit the cemetery.
Expending the cemetery required building new roads to the added grave sites. Larson said the original idea was to hire a Hanna resident to lay out the roads. The cemetery board chairman said the scope of the project required a larger team and Mass Grading, out of Rawlins, was selected instead.
Larson said to help the cemetery board’s budget, Mass Grading owner Kelly Brandt offered to repair the existing roads in the graveyard free of charge. The cemetery board chairman said Mass Grading should be finished laying the new roads tomorrow.
Larson said Hammond has finished surveying the existing and new grave sites. The cemetery board chairman said the new map has been submitted to the proper authorities and is nearly ready to use.
With the big project nearly completed, Larson said the Elk Mountain cemetery board will focus on updating the rules and regulations of the graveyard.
Larson said the cemetery board will also set how many burial sites a person may buy at once to prevent someone from purchasing a bunch of plots and selling them for a profit without the town’s approval.
The cemetery board is funded by plot sales. Larson said beginning in January, burial prices in the Elk Mountain cemetery will be raised. The cemetery board chairman said the money will go toward future graveyard improvements.
Larson said it was his objective to remap and expand the cemetery since he reformed the Elk Mountain cemetery board a year ago. When Mass Grading is finished building the new roads and the town has the updated map in hand, Larson will have achieved his goal.
