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	Visiting Historical Brooks Cemetery Will Get Much Easier By Capi Lynn Statesman Journal January 7, 2008 http://159.54.226.83/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080107/COLUMN0807/801070301/1064 Hopefully the dreaded days of parking along the narrow shoulder of busy Brooklake Road NE and climbing the steep embankment to pay respects are numbered. A new access road is planned for Brooks Catholic Cemetery, northeast of Salem, and for folks like Dorene Standish and Paul White, it's overdue. Visiting the cemetery the past six years has been an adventure for descendants of those interred, their only access a slippery slope too difficult for many to navigate. "It's been a travesty," said Standish, whose great grandparents once owned the land where the cemetery lies. She is president of the Brooks Catholic Cemetery Association, which hopes the road will be put in sometime early this year. The group is about to be conveyed the deed to the cemetery and has received preliminary approval from Marion County Public Works, a grant through the state Historic Cemeteries Program, and an offer of equipment and labor from the owner of adjacent property. The $3,300 grant is contingent upon the donation from property owner Adam Wittenberg. A letter from Wittenberg accompanied the application, stating that he would donate at an estimated cost of $100 an hour for labor "for as long as it takes to complete grading, excavation, finish and cleanup." Brooks Catholic Cemetery was one of 35 historical cemeteries in Oregon to be awarded a 2007 grant. Recipients have until November to complete projects or risk losing the funds. There is one downside to putting in a gravel road and a small parking area on the eastern edge of the 1.3-acre site. "We're losing a number of cemetery plots," said White, vice president of the association. About 100 people are buried at the cemetery, according to Standish. She knows of at least 15 graves that are unmarked, and assumes there are others. About half the cemetery is full. The last burial was in December 2006, and White remembers having to help dig the grave by hand because a backhoe couldn't make it up the slope. Future burials -- White and Standish both wish to be buried there someday -- will no doubt be easier with a new road. The cemetery is perched on the north side of Brooklake Road, about 1?206-140? miles east of the Brooks-Highway 99 intersection, as you begin to make a sharp turn onto 65th Avenue. "Most people, unless they're locals, don't even know the cemetery is there," Standish said, noting that a large white cross once stood near the center of the cemetery and acted as a landmark. Today, there isn't even a sign marking the cemetery, which was established in 1894. It also has been known as Labish Center, Skunkville and Skunk Hollow cemetery. "There used to be skunk cabbage in that hollow," said White, who like Standish grew up in the area. Standish's great-grandparents, Edward and Salome LaFlemme, originally owned the property and sold it to Brooks Catholic Church of Assumption for $25, according to a copy of the deed that Standish has. She said the church was destroyed by fire around 1911, and care of the cemetery fell into the hands of descendants, even after the archdiocese of Portland assumed control in the mid-1960s. A group of descendants formed the cemetery association in 2001, hoping to establish better access. The association was on the verge of being conveyed the deed about the time the archdiocese filed bankruptcy in 2004, under the weight of sexual abuse lawsuits. Now after three years, conveyance of the deed is in the works, according to St. Joseph Catholic Church, which oversees the cemetery for the archdiocese. "Forward This" appears Mondays and Thursdays and highlights the people, places and organizations of the Mid-Willamette Valley. To share a story, contact Capi Lynn at clynn@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6710.
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