Grave goods and the holidays

I can understand grave goods when it's the angels and fake flowers, but a tchotke saying "wishing you peace and happiness this holiday season"? That's a little strange.

Silver Hill Cemetery, Arkansas

The Younger Daughter and I had a conversation earlier today about job opportunties at Buffalo National River. There's an opening at the park posted on USAJobs with the duty station described as "Silver Hill/St. Joe," so I gave her a real pep talk about applying for the job even though she's weak in one of the four KSAs listed. I've been to Silver Hill, and Buffalo is one of my favorite parks. . . so I told her to apply so I could live vicariously through her. And, to clinch the argument, I told her I'd put up photos from the Silver Hill Cemetery. The cemetery is located right outside the park off U.S. 65.

Silver Hill is a fairly typical rural Arkansas cemetery. It's been in use for over 100 years, has an interesting mix of vernacular and commercial grave markers, and is still an active cemetery. There are a few table graves, some cast concrete head and footstones, and, of course, a Woodsmen of the World or two.


The older part of the cemetery has quite a few graves marked with uninscribed fieldstones, another typical feature of southern graveyards, especially rural ones. The table graves are also uninscribed.

I am intrigued by the gate -- the ironwork supporting it is very nice, but there's no fence on either side of it.

Something I didn't know

The original Rin Tin Tin was French and is buried in a Paris pet cemetery.

One Of My Neighbors

Nothing like living across the street from the city boneyard for one who enjoys exploring cemeteries. It's a great place to walk the dog on an autumn afternoon, with a spectacular view of Chequamegon Bay, and plenty of stimulus for thought.

Among my more interesting neighbors is a man who died too young:


Poor guy; probably thought he lucked out when the Army sent him to Alaska instead of France. The newspapers I've checked say nothing about the death of this local soldier, but I think it's a safe guess he was a victim of the great flu epidemic.

Fort Liscum, it turns out, stood on the site of modern Valdez, and closed in 1923. The University of Alaska has some great photos of the fort available online.

Jewish Cemetery- Hurley, Wisconsin

Thanks for the invitation to post here, Nan. For my maiden contribution, I'll offer a site that you will surely know more about than I ever will.

Coming from New York, the ultimate melting pot, the demography of Upper Cheeseland seemed pretty bland when I moved here 16 years ago. It wasn't until I settled in and started looking more closely that I began to notice the ethnic diversity that I'd initially missed: the Poles in Washburn, Bohemians in Moquah, Italians in Hurley, and the rest.

Not surprising, then, that this Jewish cemetery in Hurley caught my eye pretty quickly, though it was only recently that I finally got around to stopping. (One of these days I need to go back when the light is better.) I'm always especially fascinated when I encounter Jews in out-of-the-way places: though the mining country along Lake Superior may be a long way from Cornwall or the Piedmont, it seems farther yet from the shtetls of Eastern Europe. What was life like for a Jew in this land?

(Click the images for a closer view.)

Very personal memorials

The Washington Post has interesting feature article today on tatoos as memorials. It's been common for generations for some people to do a tatoo with a loved one's name and perhaps significant dates (birth, death, marriage), but body art has moved on to doing actual portraits.

Congressional Cemetery, Washington, DC

Photo is are from November 2004. The Congressional Cemetery is located in southeast Washington, DC, and, of course, contains a fair number of notables. J. Edgar Hoover is planted right up the road from this fellow.

Like many older cemeteries, the Congressional Cemetery has a number of maintenance issues, including family mausoleums that are suffering sadly from neglect.