Have you ever wondered where all of the lumber barons have gone?

If so, you may want to pay attention to an interesting project taking place this summer at Wildwood Cemetery.

There, three interns in Lycoming College’s Williamsport Internship Summer Experience program are researching people who may have played a significant role in community life during the lumber era.

Originally, the research was intended to find information on people buried in the city cemetery established in 1863 in order to contact family members so plots could be cared for. The scope of the project has since expanded to include developing stories and tours related to specific people buried in Wildwood.

The goal is to pull together information not only on the well known but also less familiar names whose contributions were no less significant. The stories will go beyond lumber barons, though that is the largest of eight categories. Other categories include influential sports figures, people in arts and music, Black history and Lycoming College leaders.

To date, the students have uncovered a number of interesting stories and there’s promise of more to come.

Thad Meckley, a local historian and trustee on the cemetery’s board, envisions tours and hopes to get a state historical marker attesting to Wildwood being the final resting place for the largest accumulation of lumber barons and industrialists of the city’s lumber heyday.

The graves of at least 130 lumber barons have been identified so far. When you stop and think about it, it’s both amazing and makes perfect sense, given the cemetery’s location not far from Millionaires Row.

Given the research and the important historical stories the students have found and continue to find, we believe the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission should approve a marker for this site.

As we see it, Wildwood Cemetery should be an important stop in the state’s Lumber Heritage Region and along the History Trail of Pennsylvania.