PENDLETON — The Pendleton Public Library is expanding its Quiet Neighbors program with an upcoming tour of grave markers and the history of Pioneer Park. The program, which started two years ago at Olney Cemetery, highlights some of Pendleton’s historic figures and burial locations.

“This is a very popular type of activity for the library to put on,” library assistant Heather Culley said. “In a way, I think it’s the same interest people have in true crime books … learning more about people and the history of the area.”

Treasures of Pioneer Park is Feb. 4, 4 p.m. at 400 NW Despain Ave. It will begin in the park’s southeast corner near the playground structure. Registration, which is free, is required.

While the program at Pioneer Park won’t include actors representing historic Pendleton residents, Culley will guide people through the park, pointing out the four remaining grave markers. However, those aren’t all the remains in the park — Culley said there are 90 individuals whose final resting place is at Pioneer Park.

“This is a tour and talk,” Culley said. “We’re going to be talking about the history but there won’t be costumed performers.”

In early 2000 when the American Association of University Women’s Pendleton Branch helped mobilize efforts to create the playground structure at the park, they worked closely with a New York architect firm. According to the AAUW’s history of the playground project, they wanted to ensure that the people were mindful of the “quiet neighbors” that remain in the park.

Former library director Mary Finney, who participated in the October 2021 Olney Cemetery tour, shared that Aura Goodwin Raley (1829-1913) and her husband, Moses Goodwin (1871, year of death), donated a small plot of land on Pendleton’s North Hill for a cemetery. Many of those graves were transferred after Olney Cemetery opened in 1891.

Culley, who grew up in the Weston area, has been at the library for 25 years. She said many of the older records, which often are sketchy at best, were lost in floods and fires. However, she said the library has a special cases room with a collection of nearly 800 items that feature the history of Pendleton. It includes everything from books, newspapers and magazines to scrapbooks and photographs. In addition, she said the Umatilla County Historical Society maintains a treasure trove of pioneer history.

“Everybody has a history and everyone has a story that can be told,” Culley said. “Some are just ordinary people but they are all historic people — without them, we wouldn’t have Pendleton.”

For more information, visit bit.ly/3HcoVvX. To register, call 541-966-0380 or stop by the library at 502 SW Dorion Ave.