It doesn't look like much on top.
"It's not just a little field in Black Hawk State Park," said Noah Kelly, a 16-year-old Boy Scout with Troop 109 in Moline.
Underneath, there's almost 200 years of heritage, humanity, and history.
"The land was donated by William Dickson in 1834," said Beth Carvey, Director of the Hauberg Indian Museum at the Black Hawk State Historic Site. "He was one of the first white people that owned this land and set two acres aside for a public cemetery."
The Pioneer Cemetery - also known as the Dickson Cemetery - is one of the oldest cemeteries in the area as well as the first non-Native American one where many of our early settlers were laid to rest, such as the Vandruff Family of Vandruff Island in Milan, Illinois and John Long, one of the people who killed Colonel Davenport.
However, the area does not look like a cemetery. There are several tombstones missing, faded, or broken as well as downed trees, an overgrowth of weeds, and little to no signage. Noah said he wanted to do something to change that.
"I love history," added Noah. "It’s one of my favorite things and I just think it’s a good thing to be able to give these people respect and honor and to learn a little bit also about the community."
As part of his Eagle Scout Service Project, Noah is going to start sprucing up the cemetery on Saturday, July 11th. From 8am-4pm, any and all volunteers are welcome to help him clean up the area by pulling weeds and installing a fence. Noah raised thousands of dollars for the supplies through donations.
"I went door to door to some of these neighbors that live around here, contacted a few historical societies, wrote in a few letters for the newspapers and that really brought in a lot of money from a lot of different people," he said. "We even had one donor who wished to remain anonymous who donated $1,000."
Some of that money will also go towards creating a sign that includes the history of the cemetery and some of the known names of those who are buried there.
"Why do we have cemeteries?" asked Carvey. "We have cemeteries so we have headstones so that that’s person’s name will live on in perpetuity and over the years the cemetery has been vandalized, so my end of the project really is the historical end and that will be erecting a sign with the names of the people that we know are buried here, which is the point of a cemetery, so I’m very excited to get that done."
Carvey said she's been looking for an Eagle Scout to tackle this project for the last 10 years and is pleased to have Noah helping out.
"It's something that's lasting," she explained. "So many Eagle Scouts want to build a bench or they want to build a bridge, but this is something that's lasting and that's why Noah is so special."
"It had to be the right person who can have the interest in the historical aspect of it and then carry it through and whenever we can have our young people get involved, we’re always happy."
"People want to make a difference and this is something that people actually care about and so that really helps show that this is going to mean a lot to people," added Noah.
The Pioneer/Dickson Cemetery is located in Black Hawk State Park, west of the Singing Bird Lodge.
If you are interested in volunteering, the clean-up starts at 8am and goes all day on Saturday, July 11th.