Franklin Cemetery
N 47° 17.596 W 121° 58.063
10T E 578049 N 5238271
Abandoned Cemetery of the Ghost Town of Franklin, WA
Waymark Code: WM38YZ
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 02/27/2008
Views: 85
Franklin was a significant coal mining town in the 1800s, but it has been abandoned for many years. As the U.S. began to rely on other sources of fuel after WWI, the demand for coal began to decline and led to the end of coal mining in the Puget Sound area. All that remains of Franklin today are old building foundations, some artifacts, the shaft of the coal mine, and this cemetery.
The cemetery is in a deplorable state of neglect, particularly disappointing because it is on State Park land. A forest has grown up inside the cemetery, heaving up some headstones and crushing others that lay in the path of falling trees that should have never been allowed to grow up in there in the first place. Blackberries threaten to swallow the entire cemetery, and no doubt conceal some of the graves. Many of the headstones have been stolen by vandals. There have been a few attempts to clean up the cemetery over the years, but nothing has been done there for a very long time.
There is very little history of Franklin available on the Internet. There are a couple of Washington History Link essays that feature Franklin. One is about coal mining in the region, and the other is about a disastrous Franklin mine fire in 1894. The best source of information about Franklin's history is the museum in nearby Black Diamond.
Graves that can be seen and identified include:
Martin Johnson 11/13/1872 - 3/7/1902
J.M. Peterson Passed away on 1/1/1906 at age 30
Frances Marie Myers 3/13/1901 - 5/24/1901
Alice Gertrude Johnson 1/1/1902 - 1/7/1902
Aarne J. Hanson 12/28/1903 - 2/8/1908
Meimi A. Hanson 4/18/1906 - 12/16/1906
Luigi Farro Passed away on 8/24/1891 at age 32
Rocco Tittara Passed away on 8/24/1891 at age 37
Filippo DiMarino Passed away on 8/24/1891 at age 27
Joseph W. Standridge 8/24/1894 at age 16
James Gibson Passed away on 8/24/1894 at age 27 (date of mine fire)
Romulous Monroe Gibson Passed away on 10/5/1895 at age 35
The trailhead to access Franklin and its cemetery is located at N 47° 18.057 W 121° 57.150. Parking is prohibited at this location. To be legal, park farther down the road past the NO PARKING signs. One pullout you can use is located at N 47° 18.173 W 121° 57.166