Engineer's heart in job at Palmdale cemetery
By Karen Maeshiro
LA DAILY NEWS Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 12/23/2007 12:56:10 AM PST
PALMDALE - Barry Munz has both a personal and professional connection to the 121-year-old Palmdale Cemetery that the city is restoring after years of neglect.
His great-grandparents, 19th century pioneer settlers John and Amalia Munz, are buried there, and Munz, a civil engineer, designed the plans for new fencing and other improvements.
"I think it's a good thing they are doing because the cemetery was in a state of disrepair, and they are cleaning up and going to improve the entire area in remembrance of the city's origins," said Munz, 46.
The cemetery, established by the city's first settlers, has languished for years, the target of vandals and thieves. It was littered with trash and debris despite efforts by volunteers to keep it clean.
Grave markers went missing or were knocked over, and a vehicle smashed into the front block wall last summer.
Late last year, the City Council passed a resolution to take over the cemetery and turn it into what state statutes refer to as a "pioneer memorial park."
With such a designation, city government could restore and then maintain the memorial park.
A $159,000 city contract was awarded in early December to begin the restoration with decorative wrought-iron fencing, gates and granite.
And city government has acquired 14 acres adjacent to the cemetery with the idea of establishing a historical park there.
The cemetery's owner is Don Jones, a Tehachapiman who is the son of one of the previous owners. He has agreed to turn over his claim to the site to the city.
"The founding fathers of Palmdale - some of them are buried here," Public Works Director Leon Swain said. "It's a nice thing to do to preserve our heritage."
Records indicate there might have been as many as 203 burials, although during one examination, there appeared to be only 187 marked graves within the fenced area, officials have said. Far fewer than 187 markers remain.
The last burial of record there was on Jan. 17, 2001, officials said. The cemetery no longer accepts burials because of the possibility of disturbing unmarked graves.
In part of his work, Munz said he used ground-penetrating radar - a device that looks like a boxy lawn mower on wheels - to locate gravesites.
"We wanted to make sure the fence was not built over existing graves. We went outside the perimeter to make sure no graves were outside the boundary as well. We used new technology to make sure we weren't disturbing gravesites," Munz said.
The cemetery was created by the settlers of Palmenthal, founded in the 1880s by German and Swiss immigrants from Nebraska and Illinois.
Grave markers bear the names of pioneers, including generations of Ritters, whose former ranch west of Palmdale is being turned into a 7,200-home master-plan community, and Melville J. Courson, Palmdale's first honorary mayor, for whom a downtown park is named. Munz said his great-grandparents immigrated to Illinois from Switzerland, then moved on in the mid-1880s to what is now Palmdale.
Amalia Munz died in 1898 at age 37; her husband died in 1925 at age 75, family members said.
The Antelope Valley Genealogical Society is planning to put together a book about the cemetery.
[email protected] 661-476-4586
Comments