Sight #10: Block 14 at Lone Fir Cemetery

Of reburial and remembrance

First page of 1948 contract authorizing the removal of Chinese bodies buries at Lone Fir Cemetery

County Clerk's records, County Clerk's recorded documents, 1864 - 1970, Multnomah County Archives, Portland (Or.).

Block 14 of Lone Fir Cemetery contained the remains of over eleven hundred Chinese people. In 1928 and 1941, over 800 of these bodies were disinterred and returned to China for reburial.

Part of Block 14 lay under the parking lot of the Morrison Building. This County building housed part of the Transportation Division. In 2004, the County decided to demolish the Morrison Building and sell the land. Buckman Neighborhood Association, Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery, and the Oregon Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association informed the County they believed Block 14 still contained human remains. They were correct.

Accordingly, the building was demolished without disturbing potential remaining gravesites. Block 14 was deeded to Metro in 2007, reconnecting it to the cemetery. Metro's master plan includes a memorial garden in Lone Fir Cemetery.