The Fall City Cemetery is an important and sacred community space, a final resting place for loved ones and strangers alike. The early records of the Fall City Cemetery Association shed light on some of Fall City's history with the burial of an unnamed man about 1870 who had the misfortune to pass away suddenly while boarding in town. His name and circumstances unknown, it was decided to bury him on the knoll overlooking town rather than in a family plot, as was customary at the time. His resting place has a marker, provided first by Jesse Kelley in the 1960s, and later replaced with a sturdier bronze plaque provided by Jack Kelley; he is honored and not forgotten.

In the years that followed this burial, more townspeople chose to bury loved ones on the hill, close to the existing and long-established sacred burial grounds for the Snoqualmie Tribe. The Fall City Cemetery Association was formally established in 1899, and soon purchased lands and established ongoing efforts for plot sales and funeral services, as well as administrative roles like record keeping.

In the cemetery records, it is sad to see that the gentleman from 1870 is not the only unknown person interred at the cemetery. There are currently 15 unknown persons, some of them children. More surprising is the entry for "Leg of Man," assumed to be found in the river, resulting from a logging or other similar accident. Although their individual stories are unknown, they speak to the rapid influx of people from all around the world in the late 1800s and early 1900s, all seeking a better future here in the Valley and PNW.

In Section C of the cemetery, there are three unknown men buried during the early days of Fall City's logging and railroad expansion. In one plot, two Italian men are buried, their names and circumstances of death unknown. Stories passed down suggest they both worked for the railroad and either died on their first day of work, or were simply paid with no communication, so their names were never recorded. Next to these men is the plot of an unknown "white man" who is believed to have died in accident while working for Weyerhauser, or he was simply found and had no identification. Like the man from 1870, these three men have headstones to mark their final resting place, but their identities and circumstances remain a mystery.

With WA gaining statehood in 1889, that year's census reflects the great distances people traveled for new opportunities here. Single men as well as whole families were living in Fall City and Snoqualmie from at least 15 different countries: Ireland, England, Scotland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Canada, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Prussia and China. Most worked as farmers, laborers, and loggers, but also cooks, carpenters, and blacksmith. Some made the Valley their home with descendants still living in the area today.

Through the years, the Fall City Cemetery Association and the greater community have tended to the cemetery grounds and the many markers. In 1967, after retiring from the Snoqualmie Valley School District, Jesse Kelley began to provide volunteer grounds maintenance. Troubled by many unmarked graves, and inconsistencies between cemetery records and the locations in the cemetery, he and his wife Artie spent three years using a rod to confirm locations and update records. Then, in partnership with Flintoft's Funeral Home of Issaquah, they also provided cement headstones for the unmarked plots.

If you would like to learn more about the cemetery, please find links to newspaper articles written over the years on the sidebar of this page, and check out Jack Kelley's book Jack's History of Fall City where he shares not only memories of his parents' effort and his own, but the broader history of the cemetery and some notable people interred there. If you would like to learn more about the Fall City Cemetery Association or become a volunteer, please visit https://fallcitycemetery.org/