Photo by Eric Keith / St. Joseph News-Press

Katie Hrenchir, Staff Sgt. Stefanie Linville and Senior Airman Daniel Steidel from the Missouri Air National Guard spruce up Mount Mora Cemetery Friday afternoon.

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With a depleted trust fund and rising expenses, Mount Mora Cemetery, the only cemetery in Northwest Missouri to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has become dependent on the assistance of volunteers.

Enter the Missouri Air National Guard.

The 139th Airlift Wing adopted the cemetery last year as a community volunteer project, thanks to the efforts of Lt. Col. Grace Link, said Col. Steve Cotter, the wing commander.

About 50 members of the wing took time out from vacations Friday to help clean up after last winter’s ice storm, which caused an estimated $80,000 in damage to the hundreds of trees located on the grounds.

Citizen-soldiers with last names like Bullock, Denny, Linville, Middleton, Miller, Osborn, Pankau, Rush, Thompson and Ziph brought lawn mowers, chain saws, rakes and trimmers to begin the cleanup. And many of those same Guard members, if they looked closely, would find someone with the same last name at rest for a hundred years or more.

“It’s a beautiful day and a worthy cause,” said Maj. Byron Newell. “And it’s a sobering way to pay a little respect to a community asset.”

Six Newells are buried at Mount Mora.

For Col. Mike Pankau, the wing’s vice commander, it was a walk back in time.

“I started working here when I was a kid in high school,” Mr. Pankau said. “It took a week for our crew of three to make it clear across the cemetery using push mowers around the stones.”

The city provided a number of trucks to help haul away the timber.

Suzanne Lehr, who has studied the cemetery and the people who are buried there, had about 75 third-graders visiting from Coleman Elementary School at the same time. Mrs. Lehr took the students on a walking tour of the grounds.

“A bonus was that the students got to see adults volunteering,” Mrs. Lehr said. “I hope it’s something they won’t forget.”

Before lunch, which was donated by Subway, the Air National Guard members paused in their work to pay tribute to Col. John Byrne Logan, the founder of the unit, who is buried at Mount Mora. The Coleman students also stopped to watch.

Lt. David Wennerstrom played taps as the Air National Guard members stood at attention.

To see if your family might have someone buried at Mount Mora Cemetery, go to this Internet site: www.mountmora.org.

Marshall White can be reached at marshall@npgco.com.