The Cemetery Crisis in Walla Walla
A growing city faces a grim reality as its burial grounds reach capacity and legal disputes stall expansion.
Walla Walla—Where Walla Walla is going to bury her dead is getting to be a serious question. The cemetery has hardly a vacant lot within its bounds, and the trouble that has ensued over the purchase of additional ground has tied up any prospects of adding more territory to the burying ground. The city council recently, as committee of the whole, advised the purchase of 35 acres of land. It develops, however, that there is no water available to keep this in condition during the summer.
“Where Walla Walla is going to bury her dead is getting to be a serious question.”
Municipal infrastructure often struggles to keep pace with growth, but this story captures the uniquely morbid civic challenge of finding space for the dead, a problem that continues to haunt expanding cities across the Pacific Northwest.
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