Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery offers many events opportunities to enjoy the cemetery and get involved. Keep watching this site as more items are added to our calendar.
Questions: info@friendsoflonefircemetery.org
Board Meetings
Want to meet other volunteers and become more involved in FLFC? Come sit in on our monthly board meetings.
Currently conducted via Zoom. Contact info@friendsoflonefircemetery.org for details.
Fourth Thursday of the Month
- November: No MEETING
- December : NO MEETING
6:00p – 8:00p
Guided Historical Tours
Want to get to know the cemetery better? Take one of our monthly tours. Tours highlight Portland’s founders and regionally-known pioneers.
The tour is on the Second Saturday of every Month.
10:00a – 12:00p
Cemetery, Soldiers Monument
Suggested donation: $10 per person
Reservations or donations are not required for the tour, but are greatly appreciated. All proceeds go to fund our workshops and cemetery preservation work.
Questions: info@friendsoflonefircemetery.org
Guided Tour: Stories in Stone
“I enjoyed the Historical Tour – I’ve taken it twice! – but what about the rest of the cemetery? What is that structure? Who is this and why is their name familiar? Is this granite? What does this symbol mean?”
Lone Fir is 30 acres and 25,000 (est.) burials. It’s too much for one two-hour tour. We’ve created two tours: one covers the area north of the main road, the other covers the area south.
Come join us for the North Tour and the South Tour in alternate months.
First Saturday of the month, alternating North and south tours. See our Event Calendar for cadence.
10:00a – 12:00p
Cemetery, Soldiers Monument
Suggested donation: $10 per person
Reservations or donations are not required for the tour, but are greatly appreciated. All proceeds go to fund our workshops and cemetery preservation work.
Questions: info@friendsoflonefircemetery.org
Women’s Tour
“Go west young man and grow up with the country.” While many men did heed this call to the western frontier seeking adventure and fortune, most women came with their families– as children, as wives and often as mothers caring for children. This tour will highlight their unique stories and their roles in the community as Portland transitioned from a rough and tumble frontier town to an early 20th century city.
As we walk through beautiful Lone Fir Cemetery, we will visit the gravesites of women whose names you may recognize as Portland’s founding families: Terwilliger, McLoughlin, Macleay, as well as lesser-known women whose contributions through civic, philanthropic, and religious organizations improved the lives of Portlanders.
After the tour you will be able to answer the following questions:
- In her role as the first women to hold the position of City Health Officer in a major US City, who is credited with preventing an outbreak of bubonic plague by implementing an aggressive rat extermination program that included a nickel bounty on rats?
- In the 1870s, despite discriminatory laws, who was the first black women to own her own house in Portland?
- Who was the face of the 1908 US Supreme Court case that upheld Oregon’s law that limited women’s factory shifts to 10 hours a day?
- Who lost her mother on the Oregon Trail only to be left a year later with her new stepmom while her father when down to the California gold rush?
- How many generations of Oregon women actively worked on the state’s suffrage movement? (hint: it took over 40 years)
- Who was the first women convicted of murder in the Oregon Territory?
- What highly successful woman painter was posthumously name “The Oregon Artist” by the Oregon legislature?
The Women’s Tour will be held on the following 4th Saturdays of the month (10:00 am- noon).
The Women’s Tour will begin at the Soldiers Monument (center of the cemetery) at 10:00 am and will last approximately 2 hours.
Suggested donation is $10 and you can reserve a spot in advance.
Nature Journal Club
At each meeting of the Nature Journal Club, art and nature educator Jen Wozniak will highlight aspects of the Lone Fir Cemetery’s rich natural history, and lead the group in Nature Journaling strategies to help you discover the cemetery’s natural wonders – from miniscule mosses to towering trees.
The practice of Nature Journaling blends art and science. We’ll record observations with drawings, words, and numerical data. All drawing experience levels are welcome, and emphasis is on following your curiosity rather than making “good drawings”. Bring your own journal and drawing media, such as pencils, pens, watercolors, and/or colored pencils.
Attend Nature Journal Club once to experience the Lone Fir Cemetery in a new way, or return monthly to develop an ongoing practice, attune to subtle seasonal changes, develop a meaningful relationship to place, and connect with others who love the cemetery.
The Nature Journal Club meets on the last Sunday of each month, at the Soldier’s Monument located at the center of the cemetery.
Please reach out with questions to jen@springwaterschool.com
Headstone Cleaning workshops
Meet at the Soldiers Monument at 10am for a tutorial on how to clean and spruce the headstones at Lone Fir Cemetery.
The workshop runs from 10am until noon and there is no registration needed. We provide the supplies! Gloves are handy and please dress to get dirty.
Every Third Saturday of the Month – April through September
10:00a – 12:00p
Cemetery, Soldiers Monument
Cost: FREE!
Memorial Weekend Tent
For some Memorial Day is a time for reflection, to give thanks to the veterans who served our country, to visit family members and friends that have passed and for Friends of Lone Fir it is also a time to volunteer.
Date: TBD
Chestnut grove
Cost: Free
If you are interested in volunteering please reach out to us at info@friendsoflonefircemetery.org
Tombstone Twilight
Celebrate Halloween weekend at Metro’s historic Lone Fir Cemetery in Southeast Portland! Guided tours take guests throughout the cemetery and hear the stories of those who lived and died in Portland. Come for an informal history lesson while enjoying the beauty and tranquility of Lone Fir Pioneer Cemetery in SE Portland at Twilight. The tour highlights Portland’s founders, pioneers, its famous and infamous alike.
Details TBD