A piece of Tower-Soudan history is in danger of slipping away, amidst the overgrown trees and brush that border the northern edge of Lakeview Cemetery.

The cemetery’s “potter’s field,” an area used to bury the indigent from 1880 until the mid-1940s, is home to about 400 graves, according to cemetery records. The majority of the graves date back to the period between 1910 and 1917, when two influenza epidemics raged through Tower-Soudan, killing mostly the young and the old. There were two sections to the potter’s field, one for Catholics and the other for Protestants.

“Mostly what you see there are indentations where the wooden coffins have collapsed,” said St. James Pastor Bill Evans, who is spearheading thte effort to raise funds to help preserve the area.

Only a few of the graves have headstones. The most notable is a stone which marks the burial of two infants, born almost 20 years apart, who both lived about a year: Jeanne Decrucillier, born Jan. 3, 1893, and died March 28, 1894, and Aline Decrucillier, born July 4, 1914, and died March 27, 1915. Many of the others buried in this spot were recent immigrants who came to work in the mine, and whose families had not yet come over from Europe.

The potter’s field, part of the original cemetery plat, is now overgrown with trees and brush, and if something isn’t done soon, Evans worries, the area will be lost to nature.

Evans envisions the area preserved almost like a park, with the brush and junk cleared, and some trees preserved.

“It will never be possible to have this area look like the rest of Lakeview Cemetery,” said Evans, “but we can restore it to a more dignified setting.”

And while the Tower Cemetery Board agrees with the plan, the group that oversees the cemetery maintenance does not have funding available for the project, which is estimated to cost around $4,500.

Evans said the clearing that will be required is more than local volunteers can handle. But, he said, a professional crew could have the work done in less than a week, and then local volunteers could handle the finishing touches. Having the work done over the winter will minimize any damage to the graves.

Earlier this month the Tower-Soudan Ministerial Association agreed to support the project, along with the idea of erecting a monument at the site commemorating the early settlers of the Iron Range.

Earlier this summer, a historical society summer worker who was doing some clean-up work at the site found what are possibly old human bones, which are now being investigated by the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Department.

A special “Potter’s Field” fund has been established at the Embarrass-Vermillion Credit Union. The group is also looking for donations from local service groups and and other grant programs. Members of the Tower-Soudan Historical Society, who recently went through the process of mapping the entire cemetery (over 3,500 graves in the main portion of Lakeview) as well as computerizing cemetery records, are also involved in the project.

The group hopes to raise the money this fall, so the clearing work can be done this winter.