Fabens Group Resurrects Cemetery

Its been known by many names over the years. The Baptist Cemetery, The Protestant Cemetery, etc. But most recently its been known as the Forgotten Cemetery.

It was burial land that was used back in the old days for people that couldn't be buried at the Catholic burial grounds.

It was actively maintained until sometime in the early 1970s. After that time, there was no one left to maintain the cemetery and slowly it was forgotten. Vegetation began to over-grow the area and it came into disrepair.

At some point the land around the area was platted for development. Limited development has occurred in the area but mostly it was used for ATVs to go joy riding.

A group of residents in the Fabens area that had relatives buried there decided to get together and see what could be done to make improvements to the cemetery.

Unfortunately there is some major confusion as to who actually owns the cemetery. It was owned by a church with a particular name for many years. That church is now defunct. There is another church by the same name here in El Paso now, but they have documented that they don't own the cemetery.

So there doesn't appear to be anyone around that is in charge of the cemetery, which is how it went into disrepair.

The son of one of the last caretakers of the land organized some volunteers, though he and his family did most of the work themselves, organized a group to clean up the area and make some improvements. This is a project they worked on for several months and there was a rededication ceremony for it last week.

I was unable to attend, but wanted to give the Bidwell family and the volunteers that made it happen a quick shout-out for getting the job done.