The new arch at the entrance of Corning’s Mount Hope Cemetery was a project several community members were passionate about and helped make possible. Submitted photo from Nancy Peters

Corning Mount HopeCemetery is the silent sentinel on the high, steep loess bluff in Atchison County near Corning, Mo. That range, due to the nature of how it was created, has been there for thousands of years. It is unique because there are only a few places in the world where that soil structure can be found.
The history of Mount Hope Cemetery is vast and interesting. It is believed that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark would have passed through the cemetery grounds on July 13, 1804, during their stay near Rulo, Nebraska. The oldest headstone belongs to Eliza Hawks, who lived from September 25, 1805 to September 9, 1842. The first deed of ownership of the land  is dated February 20, 1857, to Henry Bertram.
To commemorate the cemetery’s outstanding historical value in Atchison and Holt Counties, Jo Haer and Nancy Peters, both from the Craig area, decided to raise money in order to adorn Mount Hope’s entrance with an arch. The arch was created by Orlo Jones, a welder in Malvern, Iowa. On June 7, 2018, with the help of several community members, a crew gathered to put the arch up.