Willie Keil's Grave

The board says alcohol. It was whiskey, the colony's own Golden Rule brand, distilled at Bethel and poured around the boy in his lead-lined coffin; his gravestone gives his death as May 19, 1855. Scouts sent ahead by his father, William Keil, had chosen this valley, and that choice is the reason Willie lies here. When the train arrived in November, Keil found the Willapa too wet and too heavily forested to farm, and within months he led most of the colonists south to found Aurora, Oregon. Willie stayed behind.

What the plaque says

Willie Keil Grave On the hill behind is the grave of Willie Keil, nineteen year old son of Dr. William Keil, leader of the Bethel Colony that came west to settle here in November, 1855. Willie was to have driven the leading team in the wagon train which was to leave Bethel, Missouri, in May, 1855. Four days before their departure Willie died. Because of his great desire to go west with the group, the decision was made to take his body along. It was placed in a lead-lined box filled with alcohol. The sealed coffin was carried in a wagon remodeled as a hearse which led the wagon train west. In the evening by lamp-light, Willie was buried here November 26, 1855. Washington State Parks

Where it stands

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