Pioneer Monument Make Over

The Garden of the Gods Rotary Club of Colorado Springs joined the Evergreen Cemetery Benevolent Society in sprucing up the Pioneer Monument located in the historic pioneer section of Evergreen Cemetery. This is the original area of the cemetery with many of the stones dating to the 1860's. Over 1400 souls lie at rest in this area, however only a handful of those graves are marked. In 1993, The El Paso County Pioneer Association erected a monument to honor those pioneers. This is indeed one of the prettiest areas of the cemetery, as it remains in its natural state, with blooming wild flowers and other native plants. Looking out across the pioneer section resembles the same view the first residents of the community laid eyes upon when first arriving in Colorado Springs.
ECBS utilzed unused burial vaults in the most unusual way.
These vaults were interred along side of the pioneer monument to create planter boxes. Native plants, such as our state flower, the Columbine, will soon be blooming. Ed of the Rotary Club is removing the stray weeds that have gown up. I hope our plants grow as well as the weeds! Mary carefully places each, soon to be, flowering plant.

In addition to the planter boxes, a back drop behind the monument was created using 2 Burning Bush plants as well as snowberry bushes and fountain grasses! Can you just imagine how wonderful this is going to look. I can't believe how quickly this project was completed! This is what can happen when I group of people come to together.. We were over a year trying to get this project completed, however, with more volunteers, this was completed in no time!