Southern Oregon residents help restore symbolic cross at historic Jacksonville Cemetery

JACKSONVILLE, Ore — A group of southern Oregon residents took charge and helped restore an old cross at the historic Jacksonville Cemetery.

In July of 2021, Jacksonville resident John Howell, first noticed that the cross in the Catholic section was not in good shape. He then sought help from community members who also wanted to clean the area.

“I was just walking up here with my dog and thought it was in disrepair,” Howell said about the cross. “I decided to see what we could do about it.” 

Howell approached his neighbor, Glen Cote, about the idea. Cote said the cross has been worn out and even vandalized over the years.

To Cote’s knowledge, the cross hasn’t been maintained for more than 20 years.

“[Howell] told me it’s kind of sad that people come up here and sit on the bench and there isn’t anything there but an empty, rusty cross,” Cote said. “He said we’d ought to do something about it, so we did.”

The duo was able to gather several volunteers to work on the project. After getting approval, it was installed coincidentally on March 2nd – Ash Wednesday.

”It’s been a team effort. I was just going to borrow a saw and put some wood over it,” Howell laughed. “It’s really nice to get it improved and everybody seems to be real happy with it.”

Howell and Cote hopes the cross will have an even deeper meaning for anyone visiting, and remembering a loved one.

A cemetery cross dedication is scheduled for Lent on Thursday.

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