GIRDWOOD -- In her will, Catherine McDermott's wishes are clear.
She and her husband want to be cremated, and their ashes placed in the future Girdwood cemetery.
The key word is "future." As of now, there is no cemetery in Girdwood. But a dedicated band of community members is fighting to build one, a final resting place for the roughly 2,000 full-time residents of the unincorporated community within the municipality of Anchorage.
The proposed cemetery would feature new-wave concepts like coffin-free "green" burials and GPS coordinates substituted for headstones. A plot of land has been picked out, and the Girdwood Board of Supervisors has set aside money in the community's budget for an environmental study, the next big step. Girdwood is technically a neighborhood within Anchorage, with representatives in the Anchorage Assembly, but it's a 45-minute drive southeast on the Seward Highway. People who live there see it as its own town, and a cemetery as a sign of establishment.
For now, the municipality is standing in the way. Anchorage officials say Girdwood's board doesn't have the power to spend money on a cemetery study, and doing so would require changes in municipal code. Those municipal issues compound other challenges, like the complex set of federal cemetery laws, the amount of funding needed to build the cemetery, and Girdwood's notoriously wet ground.
Those pushing for the project, though, say they're determined to see it through.
"I'm indefatigable," said Tommy O'Malley, a member of the Board of Supervisors and chair of the Girdwood Cemetery Committee. "It's something people really want done."
A sense of establishment
In the last decade, a push for the Girdwood cemetery has quietly made strides. A 22-acre plot of Heritage Land Bank property along Crow Creek Road has been dedicated to the project. The Board of Supervisors has set aside $15,000 to study the land and figure out if it contains at least 5 acres where remains can be buried.
On a sunny autumn afternoon, O'Malley walked along the edge of Crow Creek Road, across from the proposed cemetery land, a quiet, hilly hemlock forest with a river running through it. The current plans call for a parking lot for 20 cars, a columbarium wall to house cremated remains, and a pavilion. One architect has suggested carving a contemplative pool out of an alder thicket.
Instead of leveling the property and creating a flat forest lawn with headstones, O'Malley and others envision preserving the rolling landscape, with burial sites interspersed in the natural environment. The cemetery would also function like a park, with unpaved walking paths converting into cross-country ski trails in winter.
In O'Malley's mind, every small town has a cemetery. More than 50 cemeteries dot the Kenai Peninsula landscape. In Cooper Landing, an unpaved path wanders through forested burial grounds. Crosses rise up out of the earth in the historic Russian Orthodox cemetery in Ninilchik.
"It's sort of, like, one of those things that makes a community," O'Malley said. "You have a town cemetery."
Other Girdwood residents echoed that sentiment at a recent Board of Supervisors meeting.
"The community needs (a cemetery)," said Diana Livingston, 74.
"I'd get buried there," said Bill Chadwick, the Girdwood fire chief.
McDermott, executive director of the Four Valleys Community School, first heard about the cemetery idea more than five years ago. She has said she wrote it into her will right away.
She and her husband moved to Girdwood in 1998, shortly before they were married. They bought their first house there and have raised two children.
"This is home for us now," said McDermott, 45.
She paused, then added: "And we'd like it to be our eternal home."
Limits on space
Girdwood did once have a burial site, in the 1940s, before the Seward Highway and other developments entered the picture. At some point, the remains of those buried there were relocated to the cemetery in Sunrise, on the Kenai Peninsula across Turnagain Arm.
Girdwood has evolved, building a fire station, a community school and a commercial district, but a new place to bury its residents has not materialized.
O'Malley likes to see things built in his town. A cemetery, he said, "is a sign that our community is maturing and established."
"And Anchorage is going to need more space," he added. By his estimate, five acres of cemetery land in Girdwood would translate into 300 years of use.
That contrasts with the roughly 30 years of use remaining for the Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery, established nearly a century ago through an executive order by President Woodrow Wilson. Far more space exists in South Anchorage, where the 37-acre, nonprofit Angelus Memorial Park Cemetery is not yet even at half-capacity, said president Carmel Tysver. The Fort Richardson Cemetery on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson will have availability until at least 2050, said cemetery director Virginia Walker, but it is open only to veterans and their spouses and eligible children.
Once the municipal cemetery is full, the municipality is "likely to get out of the cemetery business," said cemetery director Rob Jones. "There's no profit in it. It's really taxpayer-supported."
Jones has helped advise O'Malley and other members of the Girdwood Cemetery Committee. He said he's been part of numerous meetings on the topic over the years.
He called the Girdwood plans "ambitious," saying he was intrigued by some of the more innovative aspects behind it. Municipal regulations for cemeteries currently only apply to the Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery. Another cemetery built within the municipality, whether publicly or privately owned, wouldn't necessarily be bound by every one of those rules, Jones said.
As nearby communities grow, the idea of a town cemetery is becoming a more prominent theme.
In Eagle River, a modest push to build a community cemetery is underway. Former Anchorage Assembly member Debbie Ossiander, who represented Eagle River, said she started hearing community concerns about a decade ago. A number of Chugiak residents are buried in Palmer, she said.
The proposal is now part of the municipal Heritage Land Bank's long-range plan. But that's as far as the effort has gone, Ossiander said.
"It's been a very quiet effort," she said. Girdwood, she said, is "further ahead."
Unusual challenges
In addition to local and federal legal hurdles, the funding for the Girdwood cemetery remains a question. O'Malley estimated the total cost of project at a few hundred thousand dollars. So far, only the $15,000 for the environmental study has been identified.
Other possible complications are more closely rooted in nature. Most caskets, for example, are 3 feet high, buried in 5 1/2 feet of ground.
"But we're going to have to change that because of the bears," O'Malley said, shrugging. "You know? Who figured? Bears can dig down 2 1/2 feet."
He sent letters to people living near the proposed cemetery site letting them know about the plans. One neighbor told him she was against the idea, because she didn't want formaldehyde, the chemical used for embalming bodies, in her water supply.
O'Malley assured her that bodies only need to be embalmed when crossing state lines.
Cathy Frost owns and operates the Raven Glacier Lodge next to the proposed cemetery site.
As O'Malley talked to her about the plans, Frost's immediate reaction was mixed.
"One thing that scares me about even the thought of a cemetery is, our ground here…" She paused. "I don't really want bodies floating by."
But she also observed that, with a constant stream of weddings at the lodge, a cemetery would mean something else – quiet neighbors.
"They won't complain about the band I have playing," Frost said with a chuckle.
Unclear future
Anchorage officials said the obstacles confronting the cemetery are a legal issue, for the most part.
A spokesman for the municipality, Bryce Hyslip, said that if the cemetery were to be built, it would be taxpayer-supported and require the entire Municipality of Anchorage to take a vote.
The Girdwood Board of Supervisors, meanwhile, doesn't have a legal mechanism to oversee the cemetery, Hyslip said. Girdwood is its own service area within the municipality, but Hyslip said the $15,000 set aside in the Girdwood budget for the environmental study was strictly designated for parks and roads. Cemeteries currently fall under the Anchorage Department of Health and Human Services.
"They have the funding, but they can't use the funding for a feasibility study," Hyslip said.
According to the minutes of a July meeting between the Girdwood Board of Supervisors and Anchorage officials, other options include seeking a state grant for the study, or changing municipal code to add a cemetery to the responsibilities of the Board of Supervisors.
Another idea recently surfaced from Ernie Hall, who represents West Anchorage on the Assembly. Hall served on the Anchorage Cemetery Commission for 12 years.
After O'Malley met with the commission last week, Hall suggested that the issue be placed on the municipal election ballot in April. Girdwood residents could vote on whether cemeteries should be the added to the legal responsibilities of the Board of Supervisors, Hall said.
O'Malley said he'll look into the idea, along with the other potential solutions. The point, he said, is those solutions are out there. Which means the cemetery is moving closer to fruition, one step at a time.
"I'm eating bran muffins," O'Malley said, "so I can stay alive to see this cemetery."