Book on Snohomish cemetery tells its deep, tangled history

SNOHOMISH —   A new book on Snohomish’s first cemetery brings back to life the stories of the souls who were laid to rest there and the unsettling drama associated with its demise.
“Lost & Forgotten: A True History of Snohomish’s First Cemetery” by Taylor Russell explores the lives of pioneers and Indigenous people in Snohomish, tracing how the growing town led to needing a burial ground. It also speaks to the stark disruption of graves in the mid-20th Century and shares the legal issues the city faced in repurposing the land many decades later.
Russell, a lifelong Snohomish resident, has had a fascination with history, particularly local lore, from a young age. She took an interest in the cemetery in her early 20s. For this project, Russell began researching the cemetery’s inhabitants and history to write a blog. She soon found a much deeper and more complex history.
“I knew of the cemetery, but I didn’t know the drama connected to it,” Russell said.
The city of Snohomish and its first cemetery have a relationship that can best be described in modern terms as ‘it’s complicated.’ Snohomish’s origin story and history all connect back to the cemetery, Russell said. Most of the city’s pioneers were buried here.
She worked with a team of researchers to locate headstones and identify biographical details using newspapers, probate files, census records, photographs, and more to tell a fair and accurate story.
The team identified more than 300 souls originally laid to rest at the cemetery, which was officially founded in 1876 but fell into disrepair in the 1890s.
In 1947, Washington State and the city of Snohomish agreed to cut what was U.S. 2 through the middle of the cemetery (today the highway is Second Street after the 1980s U.S. 2 bypass was built). For years, the city assured residents that all remains had been reinterred at G.A.R. Cemetery in Snohomish or other local cemeteries.
Russell and her research team confirmed that at least 100 bodies remain on the southern side of the cemetery; however, the northern side has not been surveyed. At least 20 Indigenous people were buried in the cemetery after colonization. The true number of earlier burials remains unknown. Traditionally, Coast Salish people laid their dead to rest on bluffs overlooking waterways.
“I was shocked by the history. Excited to learn more, but shocked,” Russell said, who described her book as a ‘somber bombshell.’
When she delved further into what happened, the people involved, the lives lost in time, and the remains left behind, Russell felt a haunting sadness over the damage done to land once sacred to the Coast Salish people. The cemetery was cleaved and partially paved over for the sake of progress.
What remains of Snohomish’s first cemetery is marked by a sign installed in the late 2000s at the intersections of Pilchuck Park Road and Cypress Avenue close to Second Street. It reads “Snohomish Pioneer Cemetery” and stands adjacent to Pilchuck Park. Through her book, Russell hopes to inspire greater appreciation for Snohomish’s history—and to encourage efforts to memorialize the site more meaningfully than with a lone sign in a level field.
Information on the cemetery’s history, a biographical index, upcoming events, and how to order the book is available at www.Snohomishcemetery.com.Tickets for a July 13 cemetery walking tour, set for 11 a.m., are available on the website.