Every Friday, 22-year-old Phoebe Blackman pulls weeds and clears garbage from Santa Cruz’s Evergreen Cemetery, where gold prospectors, Civil War veterans and immigrants lie buried. Though rich in history, the 1858 cemetery has long suffered cycles of neglect. Now in the hands of the Museum of Art & History— without dedicated funding or staff — its future depends on volunteers like her, who are determined to preserve the stories of those long gone. The community, she says, needs to take more responsibility for the cemetery and the stories and local history it holds.
