Blewett Cemetery

GPS Coordinates: 47.424653, -120.659750
Location: Leavenworth, Chelan County
Record count: 7

Ownership: Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest

Directions:

NOTE: The GPS Coordinates provided above are for the Blewett Stamp Mill. The cemetery is located near the mill, but we have not been able to identify the coordinates for the cemetery.

The cemetery is near Culver Springs on the west side of Highway 97 and west of Peshastin Creek. You go up Olden Gulch, near Culver Springs, then 275 feet uphill from the bridge. Turn right alongside a magnificent cedar tree, and the cemetery is just 50 feet away. Look for a giant fir and lovely mountain ash. The trail to the gravesite is across the highway from the US National Register of Historic Places sign, erected in 1974.
Follow the guard rail to the left until you see a broken-down wooden staircase on the other side of the trail. At the bottom of the staircase is the Old Blewett arrastra. The gravesite is located above the arrastra.

Background:

Fred Pflugrath visited the cemetery again in July 2005. It was located upstream of the old stamp mill on the west side of the creek in a grove of cedar trees–the oldest tree probably about 100 years. During the visit he did find the old fir tree that was girdled around the trunk shown below. The tree has died, perhaps by a lightning strike. He found a single strand of cable around most of the cemetery with corner “pipes” in two corners. There were homes both upstream and downstream from the cemetery.

The Blewett Cemetery, also known as the Blewett Pass Cemetery, was near the once active mines of Old Blewett. It was originally listed in Kittitas County, but it is now in Chelan County.

The cemetery was located by Kate Bailey and Roy Wilder, who both grew up and attended grade school at the Blewett School. “Long Forgotten Graves Found At Old Blewett,” August 15, 1966, and “Wilder Recalls Man In Forgotten Cemetery,” August 16, 1966, tell some of stories of Old Blewett and those buried there. Obituaries for most are on file at the WAGS Library in Wenatchee.

Burial Records

• Tombstone Transcription, by Fred Pflugrath, 2018, (7 records)

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