Episode 108 - Clay Street Cemetery in Fairbanks, Alaska
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Dianne and Jennie are joined by special guest Janet Richardson from Fairbanks, Alaska who shares stories of those buried in Fairbanks's first cemetery and shares many of the details of the years of restoration and preservation that has kept this cemetery alive. Clay Street Cemetery, formerly called the Fairbanks Cemetery, was established in 1903, the same year the city of Fairbanks was established on the banks of the Chena River. Here are buried people from all walks of life from local Native Americans to the first pioneers who came from all over the world to the Fairbanks area, most seeking their fortune in gold. In 1982, the cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and The Clay Street Cemetery Commission was formed. The commission has spent countless hours researching every Ordinary Extraordinary individual buried here and making sure their stories are not forgotten by engraving them on beautiful granite headstones often provided by members/businesses of the Fairbanks community.
For more information on Fairbanks history and The Clay Street Cemetery, visit: https://www.fairbanksgenealogicalsociety.com/
To help support Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York with your $5 donation click here: https://gofund.me/062c87d8
To watch the video of our adaptation of Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, click here:
https://youtu.be/uWaWbg4C82s
Janet is from the coast of Georgia and graduated from the University of Georgia as a pharmacist. She began working as a clinical pharmacist for the Indian Health Service in Alaska in 1989, first in Sitka, Alaska then Kotzebue, Alaska and finally Fairbanks. After retiring, she finally had time to do something she's always been fascinated with, cemeteries and history. Researching the folks in the cemetery brings to light many amazing and some tragic stories of the first people to the area.
The commission has done several history walks thru the cemetery, “Stories beyond the headstone” and will do more next summer, there are endless stories to tell.