Catlin Cemetery

For all intents and purposes, Catlin Cemetery is quite ancient. Located on what used to be known as Goat Hill, this place was originally an Indian burial ground. When settlers of European descent arrived and founded the town of Catlin (now part of Kelso), they began burying their dead here in 1849. The latest interments we could find here were from 1999, but the cemetery appears to have fallen out of general use in the 1940s, with only a few burials in the following decades. The cemetery is now closed to new burials. Over the years, the cemetery has suffered from neglect and vandalism, but was recently the focus of a 15-year project to clean up and restore the cemetery. One thing that isn't readily apparent by walking through the cemetery is the high number of infants buried here. A monument located near the cemetery entrance lists the names of many (but certainly not all) of the unmarked burials here, many of which are infants. The monument also lists several unknowns, most of whom drowned in the river (possibly in the same accident), as well as a few transients. Nearly 500 souls are known to be buried here, a number pieced together from various sources, but that number does not include any of the original Native burials. We have heard of no legends attached to Catlin Cemetery, which is strange because the place is a stereotypical "spooky cemetery" straight out of Hollywood. With old graves placed seemingly haphazardly rather than in neat rows, many of which surrounded by collapsed and rusting wrought iron fences, Catlin Cemetery does give one an eerie feeling.