Ive been visiting that cemetery for 15+ years ... so shhhhh ... don't tell too many people. I want it to stay the same.

Sorry, I meant what Dave Sorenson was referring to, not doubledutch....

$5* to anyone else who knows where the old Roussain Cemetary is located and the story behind it.

*paid in monopoly money

A fun way to be helpful and also enjoy the wonderfulness that are old cemeteries is to become a photo-volunteer at FindaGrave.com. There are tons of people doing geneaology who can't get to this neck of the woods, and you can help them out by taking pictures of the stone or grave they're looking for. 

I like doing this--it's like sleuthing. Unfortunately, many old graves are simply unmarked and it's sad to disappoint someone with a blank piece of grass. :-)

The Roussain Cemetery has a fascinating story. I discovered it quite by accident, overgrown in the woods and surrounded only by a thin wire fence off an ATV trail in Fond du Lac Forest (NOT actually in Jay Cooke Park) near the obscure pulloff for the old Mission Creek Parkway on Hwy 210. The dates on some gravestones, dating to the early 1800s, decades before Duluth was a city, had me stumped and intrigued. 

I later learned through research in the Duluth Public Library that the ATV trail follows the old Duluth-Cloquet Road, which in turn follows an ancient Indian Trail and was one of the first U.S. mail routes to Duluth. In 1863, Financier Jay Cooke invested in the Northern Pacific Railroad with a branch from St. Paul to Duluth, the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railway, now abandoned. 

The railroad's planners plotted a right-of-way straight through two old cemeteries at the Ely Mission (on the site of the current Fond du Lac Community Church, on 131st Ave W), which dates to 1834 (Fond du Lac itself formed around an American Fur Company post in 1817). The adjacent cemeteries both belonged to the mission; one was for Whites and Christianized Ojibwe, the other was for traditional practitioners of the Medewiwin faith. When the railroad was being built in 1869-1870, before the construction members of the community resolved to save the Christian cemetery from desecration. Frances Roussain owned a plot of land along the Duluth-Cloquet road and offered a corner of it for a new cemetery. The remains in the graveyard were painstakingly dug up, brought up the hill by wagon and reinterred. The Indian section of the cemetery was left behind to be covered by the berm, although for many years visitors to the new graveyard would find spirit houses placed atop some graves. 

There are photographs of the cemetery from as recent as the late 1950s showing it well cared for, mowed with a neat picket fence. Since that time it seems to have been forgotten; I guess everyone who had an ancestor they remembered buried there has since moved away or passed on. Only a thin wire fence and a few decaying, barely or non-legible gravestones now mark the site. It remains a fascinating and forgotten chapter in our city's history.

In abt 1869 Lk Sup & Miss RR was planned to pass thru burial ground in Fond du Lac.  Francis Roussain acquired land to move his family burials from proposed railroad course. 
(Cemetery protected under MN ST 307.08)

I was at the cemetery back in april of 09. Considering how old the two stones are they are in very good condition. It is to bad the city did not keep up on the condition. Does anyone know of where I can get a copy of a photo from back in the 1950s or earlier? Have a great New Year in 2010.

Hi, Craig. I would love to show you where the cemetery is ... there are a couple of headstones. The Roussain children are buried there, they died young. So sad. And Vincent Roy, a French Indian who was very close to the Roussains. There are two very interesting books in the Duluth Library all about early days in Fond du Lac, and photos of the Roussians are in them. You can email me at lsdm13 @ gmail.com. It is so interesting to me, since I am an avid Duluth history buff. Good luck.

To Craig Roussain ... my gmail account was taken over  and someone sent out a scam on it...so I am sorry if you tried to reach me at the email address. Please try again ... lnature5126 @ q.com.  I want you to see the cemetery.

Hi Craig - I was wondering if your wife might have any information on Charles Roussain who married Elisabeth Turner from the Soo.  Are all these families connected across Lake Superior?  I also read a story about a Roussain Cemetery on Coppermine Point.  Do you know who is buried there?  Hope to hear from you!  Thanks!
Terry Weller
Lansing, Mich

Hi Theresa:Please E-mail me. I have lots of info of the Roussains of Lake Superior and the names of the people buried in the Coppermine Point Cemetery! Lynnda

From my understanding the Roussain cemetery is still/again the property of the Fond du Lac band and is intentionally non-maintained due to desecration in the past (ATVs and vandalism). It was formerly maintained by the park.The band, again from my understanding, prefers it this way and keeps it on the hush-hush to prevent any future damage to the already degraded site. Really interesting piece of local history. I wish I could find more historical information on it. If anyone knows where to find any it would be wonderful!