Ravensdale Cemetery in Ravensdale, Washington

About

Get directions Ravensdale, Washington, USA

Coordinates: 47.35711, -121.98628
Cemetery ID:

Members have Contributed

About these numbers These percentages indicate the number of Find a Grave memorials that have a grave photo or GPS coordinates. We don't know the total number of burials in a cemetery, so we cannot calculate a percentage of those with memorials, photos or GPS coordinates.

Photos

See 4 more

By the early 1900s the Northwest Improvement Co, a subsidiary of the Northern Pacific Railroad, operated a nearby coal mine and developed the town of Ravensdale. Many miners and their families were recent immigrants from southern and eastern Europe.

In 1908 the Northwest Improvement Co donate one acre for use as a cemetery. The site was managed by the Eagles Fraternal Order and the Miner's Union.

An explosion in the mine on November 15, 1915 claimed the lives of 31 miners. Some sources indicate they were buried in a mass grave, although the names of some of the victims appear in nearby community cemeteries.

After WWI production slowed at the mine. When railroads switched to diesel fuel in the 1930s the mines and town further declined.

Beginning in the 1950s, vandals severely damaged the isolated cemetery. They opened graves and carried away the markers. A 1965 survey located 18 markers; ten years later none remained. As of 2013 there are no known official record of burials and the number of people interred here is unknown as well.

In 2003 developers built a subdivision surrounding the cemetery. The site is fenced and there is a small marker commemorating the 1915 mine disaster victims at the entrance.