The focus area was the eastern boundary of the cemetery.

Gleckler said the cleanup went very well. She also noted another sad occurrence of vandalism on the grounds, which is a common occurrence there.

“Unfortunately,” she said, “a couple of days after the cleanup I noticed a change at the Hecla Cemetery sign: Someone removed the Mugo pines that were planted about 10 plus years ago.”

She is grateful, she said that she has noticed any other signs of vandalism, adding, “but I don’t understand why someone would want to cut out decorative pine trees.”

Photos courtesy of Ruth Gleckler This photograph shows the decorative trees before the unauthorized removal this fall from the Hecla Cemetery sign area.

In a previous interview, Gleckler said the origins of the cemetery are veiled in the myths of history. While most website searches assert that the cemetery was established in 1880, she disputes that.

“It was a Hecla Mining Company cemetery,” she said, adding that when the Hecla company merged with the Calumet Mining Company in 1871, it became the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company’s cemetery.

“Then, sometime around 1880, the Sacred Heart Catholic Parish rented some eight or nine plots,” she continued. “That evolved into them eventually kind of taking some responsibility for this cemetery and designating it a Catholic cemetery,” Gleckler said, adding that the Schoolcraft, north of Calumet, became the Protestant cemetery.”

For many years, she said, Sacred Heart Parish maintained the grounds. When the Lakeview Cemetery opened, not only did people start to bury their loved ones there, but because the Hecla grounds were not well-maintained, many moved deceased loved ones from the Hecla Cemetery to the Lakeview.

Moving away from websites and into printed histories, it appears that the mystery of the origins of the cemetery may date to 1880 after all, with nothing to do with the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company.

According to the History of the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie and Marquette, Volume 2, by Reverend Antoine Ivan Rezek, on Nov. 6, 1880, Reverend Peter Menard, pastor of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, near where the cemetery is located, purchased six lots, in Block 9 from the Laurium Mining Company, paying $900, for a cemetery. A map of the Laurium Mining Company dated Oct. 1909, housed in the Michigan Tech Archives and Copper Country Collections, shows Block 9, and its location confirms the cemetery’s location.

Rezek, in his book, states that Reverend Edward Jacker was sent to Calumet in 1868 to organize the Sacred Heart Parish, which was the caretaker of the cemetery. Like the area’s Protestant Schoolcraft Cemetery, the Sacred Heart Cemetery was abandoned when the Lakeview Cemetery was opened. When the name was changed from the Sacred Heart Cemetery to Hecla Cemetery remains a mystery.