Videos

Russ Hanson, Cemetery Sexton, has made several videos of the Wolf Creek Cemetery available on YouTube. 

They include maintenance, how a vault is installed, digging a cremation grave, clearing a fenceline, Memorial Day and more. 

Video:  How to open a grave for a cremation burial  (cost $75)

Here is what is involved in a cemetery burial. 

   1.  Get the call from family or funeral home with the date and size of grave (full vault of cremation urn size).  Ask for details to see if the family has already purchased a grave and if there is a stone already to make it easy to find. Otherwise talk to the family about buying a grave(s) and visit with them at the cemetery to make the choice.

   2. If an existing grave, search out the paperwork on the grave or if an older purchase the lot of 2, 4 or 8 graves to see how many are available and how many used.  Then take the first trip to the cemetery to locate the lot, stone and see if it is clear where the burial is to be (i.e. a stone marks it).  If not, meet with the family to make the decision. 

  3.  Mark the corners of the grave by first finding the cemetery concrete lot corners with a metal detector, flag them and measure 4x10 foot graves to pinpoint the one to use.   If it is to be a full burial, call the man who digs these and carefully mark where he is to dig.  If a cremation, mark the exact spot (1/3 of the way east from the west end of the grave if a first cremation, 2/3 if a second in this grave.  We allow 2. 

 4.  The day before the burial, dig the appropriate size opening.  Cut the sod and place it on a nearby tarp and then dig a hole about 18x18x18 inches for a cremation, piling the dirt on the tarp, then dragging it away from the grave.  Cover the hole with a piece of plywood and put up some warning flags so no one will stumble into the hole.

 5.  On the day of the burial, check things out ahead of times to make sure the grave has not caved in (sand soil) and no animals have decided to make a den in the convenient hole, and hover around until the folks come and then remove the cover and let them have their burial rites if any. 

 6..  Of course we take photos of the grave opening to give a record of exactly where the burial is in regard to nearby stones.  We fill in the removed dirt around the urn or vault, place a metal washer just below the replaced sod -- so we can use a metal detector to find the urn in the future.  We add enough soil so the sod is about 1 inch above the surrounding grass to allow for settling.  There is always left over soil, so we take it and thinly spread it over any nearby low spots in the cemetery, some from previous burials settling and a few from machinery tracks where a truck may have left ruts when delivering a vault or stone.  Always there are new ones to level.  Water the sod to let it get a good start on regrowing.

 7.  File the paperwork and update the cemetery records.  We get a disposition of remains form, and sometimes a death certificate.  We make a file (electronic) logging the phone calls, copying the paperwork and the details including photos and a copy of the obituary and contact names and numbers.

8.  In a few weeks, if the person hasn't been added to Find-a-grave by the family, we add them.  Some families know about findagrave and like to do it themselves and others don't so we add them.

9.  Water the replaced sod and send a thank you to the family for the payment (often from the funeral home). 

10.  If a stone comes after the burial, we work with the stone company to mark the exact location and help make sure it gets put in right taking another trip to the cemetery and a few interactions with the family. 

  In this process, we often get phone calls from families interested in buying a grave, discovering if there are unused graves in a family lot, or queries about genealogy and burials in the cemetery. 

 Generally we spend about 6 hours, make several trips to the cemetery and charge $75 -100 for the whole effort.  $500 for a full burial that involves much more work and even more if it is winter and we have to thaw the ground.

When families are grieving, we try to make things as easy as possible.  Sometimes the family wants to do their own burial of the cremains, and so we allow that too, marking the spot and helping that all work out.  We like to do it ourselves as we are careful to replace the sod, seed grass if needed etc. 

  We put this all down so you folks have an idea of what is going on behind burying our mortal remains and why we charge for it.  My advice is if you choose to be buried in a cemetery, buy a lot, buy a stone and have everything ready for your death including plans for your funeral and your family will bless you for making their time of grief easier.  A savings account dedicated for the funeral would be nice too, as even a cremation and other expenses can cost several thousands of dollars.   

 A new grave at Wolf Creek costs $350 and can be used for one full burial or two cremations.  Most of our burials are cremations the past few years.