LA GRANDE — One of Union County’s oldest cemeteries is again standing tall.

Twenty-one fallen headstones at Ackles Cemetery, almost all of which vandals recently toppled, are back in place.

The maintenance staff of the La Grande Cemetery District handled the work Tuesday. Using a backhoe and monument adhesive, they reattached the headstones to their concrete bases. This was no small task because most of the headstones are made of marble and granite and weigh between 800 and 1,200 pounds.

Crayson McBride and Marshall Baybado, the two members of the cemetery district’s maintenance staff, handled the work.

“I’m so proud of them. We have a great crew,” said Sue Anderson, manager of the cemetery district, which encompasses Ackles, 5 miles north of La Grande.

Work on the restoration started at 7:30 a.m. and was completed by 2 p.m. Anderson said her staff has become efficient at reattaching headstones due to many acts of vandalism at its cemeteries in recent years.

“We are constantly putting up headstones,” Anderson said.

Vandals in 2009 knocked over 109 headstones at Hillcrest Cemetery on 12th Street, all of which were later restored. Hillcrest is one of the La Grande Cemetery District’s four cemeteries. The others, in addition to Ackles, are Hillcrest East and Grandview. The cemetery district’s staff also has had to reattach a number of headstones over the years after they fell over due to age.

The desecration at Ackles occurred during the past six months, Union County Sheriff Boyd Rasmussen said Monday. The most recent vandalism likely was early this month.

Memorial Monuments of La Grande assisted with the restoration of the Ackles’ headstones, donating monument adhesive for the project.

The wet condition of the 200-yard road off Mt. Glen Road leading to the cemetery delayed the restoration. Driving a backhoe over the road when it was muddy would have created ruts so deep it would have been hard for people to later drive it, Anderson said.

Ackles Cemetery was created in the mid-1800s as a family cemetery. It was later deeded to the Methodist Church and in 1955 became part of the La Grande Cemetery District.