By CHERYL ROMANO/YachatsNews
YACHATS — It’s enough to make a property developer drool — 14 acres of land with a commanding ocean view sloping east from U.S. Highway 101, backed by towering trees and just a stroll from downtown.
But the low sign near the corner of Highway 101 and King Street just across from the Adobe Resort identifies Yachats Memorial Park as a hands-off prize. It is home — the final home — for the souls whose remains are interred in what’s known as the Yachats cemetery.
Many assume that the big swath of grass, shrubs and trees, inlaid with headstones is owned by the city of Yachats, or Lincoln County, or maybe the state. But in fact, since its official beginning in 1938, the park has been the private property of the nonprofit Yachats Memorial Park Association.
Anyone can be buried — or have their ashes scattered — on the cleared five acres that stretches from the highway to a parcel uphill of the big green “comfort shelter.” East of that section, sloping, timbered land comprises the other nine acres of the property.
But the future of the cemetery rests mostly in one man’s hands — and he needs more hands to help maintain and improve this highly visible fixture in the Yachats landscape.
“I assumed that some government body owned the cemetery,” said Dick Brack of Yachats, whose wife, Dorene, was buried there in the summer of 2021. “Dorene and I had often talked about how that would be our resting place. When she passed unexpectedly, that’s how I got involved.”
That involvement started as construction of a new wooden stairway that finished one year ago. Now, even more work is falling to Brack — he’s the new “sexton” (cemetery word for “boss”) of the facility. The job of running the entire place now rests on his 79-year-old shoulders.
Big job for one man
The cemetery association is an all-volunteer organization, and Brack is currently its only member.
This summer, he inherited piles of old, hand-written cemetery records when the previous sexton, Barbara Meade of Yachats, died in June at age 81. Months prior, Meade had asked Brack if he’d be willing to work with her and then take over the cemetery. Brack got approval from the Oregon Mortuary and Cemetery Board to succeed her as sexton. However, Meade died before they could have his first training meeting.
“I had only a very vague idea” of what being in charge meant, Brack said, adding that “It’s been daunting for me” to decipher and organize the documents.
He has piles of receipts, ledgers, and a single, hand-marked chart indicating which plots are paid for, which are occupied, and which are available.
“It’s difficult to connect the dots to figure it out,” he said. “Some documents are faded and very fragile to handle but I’m gaining ground little by little.”
The record keeping is just part of the unpaid job Brack has taken on.
He’s responsible for coordinating maintenance of the grounds, selling burial plots, managing legal and public records, and ensuring that Yachats Memorial Park adheres to all regulations governing cemeteries. The only work he doesn’t do is the grounds keeping now done by a two-person crew and actual burials and cremations, which are handled through Bateman Funeral Home in Newport.
Meade, the prior sexton, inherited the job from her late husband, who served from 1993-2000. But when she died this year there were no others in formal leadership roles to carry on. Now Brack is putting out a call for Yachats area residents to volunteer for the board of directors (just one meeting annually), to help with administration and grounds maintenance, and to make tax-deductible donations.
“There was no one else” to carry on after Meade died, Brack told YachatsNews, “and I couldn’t sit back and watch the cemetery turn into a forgotten and neglected site in Yachats.”
So his stairway project — for which Brack paid $2,500 out of his own pocket — turned into an even bigger job for the cancer survivor and retired insurance claims director.
The only funds coming in are plot sales – which are substantially below the typical $2,000 fee in the area — plus a small fee for scattering ashes, Brack hopes that the cemetery’s status as a 501(c)3 nonprofit will draw tax-deductible donations. Those will help pay operating expenses like groundskeeping, now handled by Jenny Cox, daughter of former groundskeeper Rod Cox, and her husband, Ole Gunderson.
Stairway to heaven
After his wife died and was buried on the upper level of the cemetery, Brack discovered that the three stairways that gave access were “shallow and tall, and impossible for someone trying to get up there with a cane or a wheelchair.”
He contacted Meade with an offer to rebuild the south stairway, which was “the worst of them.”
“You can pull a wheelchair up that stairway now,” he said. “It was a bigger project than I thought.”
Using pressure-treated landscape timbers, Brack got to work with his two sons, Mike and Dan Brack of Beaverton, plus Yachats neighbor John Pusey. Digging into the up-sloped hillside was “very hard going,” until John Larson of J&J Residential Construction in Newport donated the use of a digger and operator.
More help came from Sean Stephens of Stephen’s Tree Care in Yachats, who advised on how to work around a big tree root without killing the tree; Chris Dordan of Newport, who paid for and worked on refurbishing the flagpole, and volunteers from Yachats Baptist Church, who painted the inside of the comfort shelter.
“I thought of myself as reasonably handy” before pitching in,” said Pusey. “I found out I wasn’t. Dick is extremely meticulous in how work is done.”
Calling Brack a humble man who would “never talk much about himself,” Pusey volunteered his work on the stairway for more than two of the three months the project required.
Pusey said he was intrigued after talking to Dick about the cemetery, learning of its private status and the facility’s long history. “Isn’t that refreshing, that he wants to take care of the place?” he said.
Back to 1938 — and 1884
The 14-acre site was donated by The Coast Property Corp. in 1938 to Yachats Memorial Park, which was incorporated that same year. Because the first recorded burial of an infant girl was in 1884, the park is designated a historic Lincoln County graveyard and also an Oregon pioneer cemetery.
Today, traditional burials — and traditional human burials — aren’t the only option at Yachats Memorial Park.
Casket burials are permitted only on the lower slope of the cleared five acres, west of the shelter because the upper slope is too dangerous. The steep terrain there caused pallbearers in a burial there last year to slip and drop a casket. However, cremation burials are still permitted on the upper slope.
In addition, the cemetery allows for loved ones’ ashes to be scattered at a “Memorial Wall” for a much lower cost than a casket burial. No lot purchase is required, and the deceased’s name can be displayed on a small plaque.
Another option is what’s called “green burial” or “natural burial.” In a designated section of the cemetery, loved ones’ remains can be interred without the traditional embalming and coffins, basically “letting the earth take you back,” Brack explained.
For non-human loved ones, the park also has a separate area for pets. Prices aren’t yet determined, but a three-by-four-foot plot cost $40 in 2007. Eleven pets have been placed there.
Big plans, big needs
Brack has big plans, short- and long-term, for the cemetery. His wish list includes:
- More board members to help run the place;
- Volunteers to help re-build the north stairway;
- Administrative help to organize and eventually digitize cemetery records;
- Tax-deductible donations for maintenance and improvements;
- Getting water and electrical lines hooked up;
- Improved landscaping around the Memorial Wall; and
- Developing the upper nine acres by removing some trees and terracing the slope.
“Yachats Memorial Park is an integral part of the community that is embedded in our history,” he said. “I just need help.”
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People interested in volunteering, donating or to ask about death arrangements can contact Dick Brack at 541-547-2400 or by email at YachatsMemorialPark@gmail.com
I’ve lived here for 4 years and often wondered who was the caretaker of the cemetery. Thank you for this article.
I hope lots of people reach out and help support a much needed resting place & remembrance of our loved ones.
Sincerely, Catherine Whitten-Carey