The Centre for Natural Burial

Mountain View Cemetery keeps coordinates for families choosing to scatter ashes

By Ellen Spitaleri, Oregon City News

It is, perhaps, the ultimate act of sustainability – the disposal of human remains in an environmentally friendly manner.

“We are making an effort to be more sustainable and go green,” said Larry Potter, the parks maintenance manager for Oregon City, explaining why there are now options for a “natural burial” at the city’s historic Mountain View Cemetery.

Regular burials have become more expensive, Potter noted, and people are also worried about taking up too much space in a traditional cemetery.

Oregonians are known to be environmentally conscious, and 63 percent of the people in this state have themselves cremated, Potter said, putting Oregon in the top five in the country in cremains.

But then the question arises – what to do with the ashes?

Family members have concerns about the disposal of the ashes, Potter said, noting that sometimes “the cremains just sit in a closet or on the mantelpiece.”

And if the ashes are simply scattered somewhere, the family has no place to go to officially remember the loved one, he said.

So Potter has come up with several options to offer family members.
Recording history

The historic cemetery covers 55 acres, 25 of which are undeveloped and have ponds and grassy walkways, Potter said.

Family members may pick a natural spot, scatter or bury the ashes, and Potter will take a Global Positioning System device and enter in the coordinates.

“Families can scatter the ashes and we can record all the information in our books and enter it into our computers. Then if other family members want to come in later and do research” or find the exact spot, there will be records of where and when the natural burial took place, he said.

“Let us be your family’s history,” Potter added.

In addition, people can purchase a “natural memorial” like a native tree, rosebush or a stone, and have that placed on the site where the ashes were buried or scattered.

Small burial plots are also available, and the cremains may be buried there and a headstone may be set in place, Potter said.

There are traditional crypts and niches at the cemetery as well, that are set up to take ashes in urns, and people can also “bury ashes at existing grave sites.”

Regulations do not allow ashes to be scattered in the ponds or other bodies of water, and the cemetery is not set up to deal with so-called “green burials,” where bodies are wrapped in fabric and buried, he added
Beauty of nature

But it is the natural beauty of the cemetery that Potter thinks is the biggest selling point for a natural burial.

Mountain View Cemetery is “owned by the city and it is a heritage park” at the top of Newell Creek Canyon, so it “can’t be sold and the people of Oregon City are not going to allow the area to be developed. It will never go away,” he said.

“We want to invite families to visit the cemetery; we want to encourage people to come here to see our wildlife and natural areas,” Potter added.
Final resting place

Audrey MacDonald is one of the first people to take Potter up on that invitation.

Audrey – along with Karen and Darrell Bennett, – brought the ashes of her husband John MacDonald,to bury at the cemetery several weeks ago. Karen is John’s stepdaughter.

The pathway down to the area, chosen by Karen Bennett, was too muddy for Audrey to negotiate, so Karen and Darrell Bennett carried the urn down the path with Potter.

He indicated that plans are afoot to pave the path or have a golf cart equipped to take people with mobility problems down into the wooded area.

Karen Bennett said, “I was left with ashes to scatter and John never said to me what he’d like me to do with his ashes. I didn’t feel comfortable just leaving them, for me I had to know there was a final resting place.”

She said she found out about the programs offered at Mountain View Cemetery through the Oregon Trail News, a city newsletter, and was attracted to the idea that the family would get a certificate, and that her stepfather would be in a nature area where they could plant a tree to mark his resting place.

“The people are here to help and I like the idea that we can come and visit. It’s a wonderful gift to give” to future generations, she added.

“John spent a lot of time volunteering at Milwaukie Providence Hospital and now we can give back to the Earth,” she said.

“He worked at Providence nearly every day – they have a plaque there as a memorial. They just loved him,” Audrey MacDonald said about her husband, who passed away on April 11, 2007. He also worked on the travel desk at the Milwaukie Center, she noted.

John MacDonald had five children in addition to his stepdaughter, “and we gave each of the children a small urn to scatter,” she added.

Karen Bennett was her stepfather’s executor and said she had given a lot of thought to the disposal of the ashes.

The idea of the GPS device, and the record keeping that will enable the family to find the exact location of the buried ashes appealed to her, Karen Bennett said, “because we can come back to the same location and we have a beautiful place to come to.

“Some people hold on to ashes and don’t want to let go. But I wanted a final resting place. I’m a hands-on person, and I wanted to do this myself – it is the perfect answer,” she said.

Karen Bennett selected a spot with a view of both a pond and a large cedar tree, and her husband dug a hole. They placed the ashes, which were contained in a bag, into the hole and then filled it in.

They shared a quiet moment and prayer and then walked back up the path to join Audrey.

“I never felt I was at peace before, but my spirit feels a bit different already. It’s a final thing, but a beautiful thing,” Karen Bennett said.

She added, “This is comforting – so peaceful. This is the end of the Oregon Trail – it is a beautiful place to be. It is a part of nature – this is going to be here long after we are gone.”