Historic sign restored at Union Cemetery

Long Lake residents and travelers along Wayzata Boulevard may have noticed a striking change in recent weeks. The Union Cemetery sign has returned, its bright white letters popping against a deep black background, bringing a nostalgic touch back to the community. But this isn’t just any sign—it’s a piece of local history, recently restored thanks to the efforts of a familiar name.

Shortly after Birch’s on the Lake first opened its doors next to the cemetery in late 2015, the sign took a hit. It could’ve been a party bus– or a delivery truck– that accidentally backed into it. It was a mystery for a while, but people generally settled on the party bus story. Nevertheless, all that mattered was what was supposed to happen next.

The Orono Lions Club volunteered to take the sign down, but it was almost comical timing when the sign was hit. “We had just fixed that thing,” longtime President Bradley Hansen said. “It couldn’t have happened before?” he said amusingly.

The Lions have helped take care of the cemetery for decades. They trim trees and hedges, clean the parking lot, and “do whatever it takes to groom the place to get it ready for Memorial Day service,” Hansen says. “The whole community takes a lot of pride in taking care of that cemetery.”

Perched atop the hill overlooking Long Lake, the grounds have been a final resting place for generations. Established in 1861, a gentleman named Elmer Wakefield was the cemetery’s earliest burial on March 8, 1862. The pillars in which the sign stands on were erected in 1939, donated by the Long Lake Woman’s Club. There’s an immeasurable amount of history behind the Union’s front gate.

As many fix-it projects often were, the sign was passed along to Rick Perry Jr. Perry Jr. was a “go-to” guy for just about any welding, sandblasting, or other handiwork needs. He certainly had Olson and the cemetery’s trust, and he had grand plans for the sign– including introducing a swivel-function. This sort of work for the community was common for Perry Jr.

“He would bend over backwards to do anything to help anybody,” former Long Lake Mayor Tim Hultmann said about him. “He was notorious for doing lots of things for the city and not charging anything.”

Hultmann needed Perry Jr.’s help several years ago with a newly constructed access gate across from The Red Rooster connecting Highway 12 and Wayzata Boulevard. The gate, a critical component for public safety that allows emergency vehicles serving the whole population of Long Lake and parts of Orono to have quick access to the major highway, was an almost urgent need. “The gate was a piece of poop that the State put in,” Hultmann said. “It was just terrible.”

The wind would easily blow it closed before emergency services could get through, the chains and locks had nasty habits of freezing up– Perry Jr. made sure to correct all of this with an (obviously) well-constructed gate.

“Those things for him kind of took priority, to do things for the city, especially things that were right in town,” his son Perry III said. Perry Jr. valued community highly. He served on the Long Lake Fire Department for 42 years, and continued cooking at the Department’s Pancake Breakfasts. He flipped pancakes in mass with a rotating contraption he hand-built by himself with his children.

Unfortunately, things took a turn when Perry Jr. shockingly passed away during a heart operation in January of 2021. He was 71 years old. The impact he had on people and the community never faded, especially the impact he had on his children. After his passing, the sign, along with his classic Ford Maverick, remained at Perry’s shop. The sign’s reconstruction was naturally put on pause.

It would take some time before it would return to its place at the cemetery, with different people getting involved. “Everyone had different ideas of what to do, I think that’s where it got complicated,” said the cemetery’s treasurer, Lizze Olson. “It was years and years of people going, ‘Don’t worry about it.’”

The Cemetery discussed plans with various parties while the sign sat in Perry’s shop. Sometimes, a final plan would emerge, only for things to revert. “At different times it was, ‘Fix it, then don’t fix it. Fix it, nope we’ve got somebody else that’s going to fix it and donate it…’ so we just waited,” Perry III said.

Some time later, Olson asked Perry III this summer if he could fix it– this time for real. It was an important task, and Perry III got to work in no time. “[Olson] said they needed to get it as it was,” he said. “It had been a number of years since it had been sandblasted and painted, and it was looking kind of rough.”

Perry III says he heated it up, straightened it out, then sandblasted it and painted it with his eldest son, Will, to make it look just as it was before. He headed up to the cemetery a couple of days before reinstalling the sign to look at the bolts and clean up the threads. Like his dad often did, he got creative with its installation.

Perry III’s forklift couldn’t lift the sign high enough, so he and coworker Gary O’Borsky used a stack of pallets to increase its height. On August 21, O’Borsky drove the forklift down the cemetery for installation. Once there, Perry III, O’Borsky, and Perry’s youngest son, Lucas, guided the sign into place. “It all worked out really slick,” Perry III said. It only took about 10 minutes to get it up, but it’ll stand proudly at the gateway to the cemetery for years to come.

Perry III never asked for repayment. “It’d be nice to do for the town, it’d look nice up at the cemetery,” Perry III said about the work. “It’s something I wanted to do. I’m sure my dad probably would’ve done the same thing.”