The eighth grade class made their first trip to McCortney Graveyard. Before we went to the graveyard, we detoured to the community of Big Piney and visited Hopewell Cemetery. The Hopewell Church (above) was started in 1869 by W. W. McDonald, builder of the Old Stagecoach Stop, near the McCortney Graveyard. It was moved to Big Piney in the 1890's and McDonald's grave is the first grave in the yard. He died in 1896.

The eighth graders picked up on the debris removal, cleaning, and recording of gravesites. They also worked on measuring the boundaries of the yard. We still haven't recorded perimenter measurements that we have made due to a lack of total confidence in their accuracy.