It's Remember Your Dead Day

There is a secret garden, hidden in the hills

It speaks of lives, present and past

Lived around the mills.

One white gate, to show the way

Two graves for the couple, she tried to stray

Three graves for the sisters, who played with death

Four graves for the Finches, some never took breath

Five silk flowers of white, blue, and pink

Six wooden places to sit and think

Seven and eight are behind the gate

Nine cottonwoods tall and straight

Ten plank steps to cross the creek

Eleven miles up the canyons and peaks

Twelve visitors leave their tag

Thirteen stripes on a makeshift flag

Fourteen hands with fourteen blisters

Fifteen trees for fifteen sisters

A pair of pines at the gate

A town forgotten, a history unwritten

Now the gaps, only remembrance fills 

In a secret garden hidden in the hills.

[The Atwood and Williams families have tended this cemetery for almost 100 years. George Atwood especially, organized and motivated the family for many years before his death to tend the family plot. His widow, Christie Atwood, knew every grave and every story. When I called the number on the information sheet they had posted, I expected to talk to George, but I listened in awe to Christie Atwood instead, as she told me of the scarlet fever epidemic which was brought by a woman and her child fleeing Colorado. They played with the Finch children while they were in town. All three girls died within a day of each other. She told me of the jealous husband, Paris Ballard, who shot his wife when she tried to leave. They were buried here too.  She told me of a tree and marker planted for each of the fifteen Atwood sisters. She told me of the welder who built the white arch for them and their efforts to build a retaining wall to guard against flooding. She told me that when George died, they planted a tree by the front gate for him. 

      I know it's not family history for most of us, but thanks for sharing it with us transplants. Maybe we can start putting down roots.]

You can find Mill Fork Cemetery on Highway 6 about 11 miles past the turnoff for Thistle and Fairview.