Professional and retired surveyers (top, from left) Betsy McKean, John Korfmann, Jeffrey Geiss and Dennis Rialland volunteered time since summer at Riverside Cemetery.
As part of a concentrated effort to both document who is interred at Riverside Cemetery in Towanda and make that information and the cemetery more accessible to the public, four surveyers lent their expertiese to the board of the Riverside Cemetery this year.
They managed to completely survey four of the Riverside Cemetery’s five designated burial areas, sections A, B, C and P. The large and complex “circle” at the northern end of the 5.5-acre landmark property remains to be completed in 2016.
In the meantime, work will continue on mapping the grave locations and adding corresponding names and photos of cemetery stones to the locations.
“When the surveying is completed, we will still have much work to do with ground penetrating radar/sonar to locate graves without headstones and remains without records,” said cemetery executive director Marguerite Fox Picou. “We are tremendously blessed to have achieved the mapping thus far and the team is heavily invested in and enthused about seeing the project to its successful conclusion.”
The Riverside Cemetery is a 501-c3 not-for-profit organization en route to becoming a historic park. Inquiries, financial and in-kind contributions are welcome. Please contact the Cemetery c/o 31 Walnut Street, Towanda, PA 18848; mfp09@comcast.net; or 570-637-2281.