An effort is underway to create a work group to oversee the record-keeping and maintenance of the historic Demersville Cemetery south of Kalispell.

Located on Cemetery Road, it is the oldest known cemetery in the Flathead Valley. The county has administered it since 1893, but it was already being used in the late 1880s by residents of the long-gone riverboat town of Demersville that was established around 1887 and flourished for several years on the Flathead River before Kalispell was founded and overtook it.

While the Clerk and Recorder Office has been in charge of selling and documenting lots in Demersville Cemetery, record-keeping through the decades has been hit and miss, Clerk and Recorder Paula Robinson said.

The methods of selling lots changed several times, with records sometimes kept on index cards and other times on maps.

There are several cemetery lot maps, all with different configurations.

“We’ve had so many hands in the pot,” Robinson told the county commissioners on Thursday. “Lot sales have been kept track of haphazardly ... it’s just a mess.”

Commissioner Cal Scott said a group of people interested in oversight of Demersville Cemetery recently approached him about creating a work group that could be a springboard for the creation of a cemetery district.

There are two other cemetery districts in Flathead County that have mill-levy allocations for ongoing maintenance: Fairview Cemetery south of Columbia Falls and Woodlawn Cemetery in Columbia Falls. Most other cemeteries are privately operated.

The work group wouldn’t be a decision-making board, Robinson said, but would be a hands-on group that could seek grants, define bylaws and formulate a plan for maintaining Demersville Cemetery.

“We hope it could be a working board,” Robinson said.

Sonar mapping needs to be completed to determine the locations of unmarked graves and empty lots. Through the years, some people were buried there with no records made of their specific burial sites.

A lapse in record-keeping that began in the late 1920s resulted in some gravesites accidentally being opened for burials in later years because the plot wasn’t marked as used, indicating it was supposed to be empty.

A few years ago a moratorium was imposed on most burials until the county could determine where people have been buried.

That moratorium remains in place, Scott said.

Demersville Cemetery serves as Flathead County’s “potter’s field” where the indigent are buried. Robinson said there are two to four pauper burials annually.

There isn’t much room left at Demersville Cemetery for indigent burials, but the county does own some property at Woodlawn Cemetery that could be used for such burials, she said.

The county used to allocate $5,000 annually for maintenance at Demersville Cemetery such as weed control and repairing ground damage caused by wet weather.

Most recently there’s been a problem with lilac bushes growing up through graves, Robinson said.

Instead of continuing with the $5,000, the county this year began keeping track of maintenance hours to get a handle on how much is actually being spent on the cemetery, she said.

Commissioner Gary Krueger said a citizen-driven cemetery district would be a possibility for Demersville Cemetery.

“I don’t think we can drive it. A group needs to come to us with a proposal and work with us and [County Administrator] Mike Pence,” Krueger said.

Anyone interested in being a part of a work group for Demersville Cemetery is encouraged to write a letter to the commissioners; letters may be sent to 800 S. Main St., Room 302, Kalispell, MT 59901.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.