Warren G. Harding Tomb, Marion, Ohio

Two photos taken in August 1988.  The Harding tomb was designed to have one column for every state in the Union, but by the time construction began the Teapot Dome scandal and others had hit the newspapers and donations dried up, resulting in it falling two short, 46 instead of 48.  Given Warren G. Harding's current reputation historically, it can be a little hard to believe the country was devastated when he died in office.   

Some historians believe that Harding, who was personally honest (his weakness was women, not lining his pockets) was beginning to realize just how corrupt some of his friends and cronies were and that the stress of worrying about impending scandal contributed to his untimely death.  There's also been speculation that his jealous wife had him poisoned, but it's most likely he died from complications of a food-borne infection.  No one knows for sure because the doctors who had been treating him just prior to his death all gave different descriptions of his illness, and his wife had him embalmed in record time. 

Words fail me

Located in Galloway, Wisconsin, at the intersection of County Highway C and Wisconsin state Highway 49.  It's more colorful in person, if such a thing is possible.

It does pay to get off the Interstate occasionally.

Photo taken May 26, 2010, enroute to Antigo from Stevens Point.

Paint Rock, Alabama

The northwest corner of the intersection of state highway 65 and US highway 72. No identifying information and, given the weeds starting to block them, no recent maintenance.

Emmet Cemetery, Dodge County, Wisconsin

I found this nifty example of a modern personalized vault while on vacation last summer.  I was taking Wisconsin highway 26 north from Janesville to Oshkosh and was feeling the need for a break from driving when I spotted the Emmet Cemetery.  I decided to stop, stretch my legs, and see if there were any markers of note, e.g., zinc or vernacular concrete.  

It's a typical rural community cemetery, and at first didn't appear to contain anything out of the ordinary.  The markers were a mix of popular styles dating back to the late 19th century, the usual tablets and obelisks with the exception of one tree marker. 

The tree was meant to designate a family plot.  There is one individual grave marker close to it, a small stump.  I'm always a little intrigued when I see that, a family plot that someone obviously intended to be the final resting place of multiple family members but only one or two persons end up interred there.  What happened to the rest of them?  Moved away?  Decided the idea of spending eternity next to one's parents or siblings had no appeal?  

The Sterwald vault shown is at the extreme rear of the cemetery, more or less at the center of the back row.  It is undoubtedly one of the niftiest modern personalized markers I've seen recently.  The use of color, the aerial view of the farm, the inclusion of the family pets (2 dogs, 2 cats) and the tractors . . . it's amazing. 

Photos were taken in late June 2009. Apologies for the mediocre quality; I was using a new camera and still figuring out how it worked.

National Foxhound Hall of Fame Cemetery

I'd heard about the "dog cemetery" on the Sabine National Forest in east Texas, so was really curious to see it last week.  It definitely was not what I expected. 

Most markers are simple pillow stones engraved with the name of the dog, his or her regisration number, date whelped and date died, and the owners.  Most also include the dog's home state; one marker even includes a metal photocopy of the dog's registration papers (complete with photo).  Still, most are simple pillow stones.  The marker below is an exception. 

One thing that surprised me was the geographic range of the dogs -- everywhere from Arkansas to Florida.  I knew there were fox hunting enthusiasts in Texas; I didn't realize this particular dog cemetery was a national one.

Another thing that surprised me was the location.  When someone says a cemetery is in a national forest, I immediately picture a site similar to the Clark-Dickey-Smith cemeteries described in a previous post:  a cemetery located basically in the middle of nowhere, tucked away in the woods at the end of a rather rough dirt road, and looking rather neglected and forlorn.  Not this dog cemetery.  It's on the northern end of the Sabine National Forest not far from the town of Shelbyville and is extremely easy to find:  it's at Boles Field, a popular campground.  The cemetery, in fact, sits between a line of camp sites that are set up for RVs (the sites have electrical hookups) and a paved two-lane road.

It is also obviously still an open cemetery -- only half the area enclosed by the posts is occupied; there's plenty of room for future champions to rest beneath the Texas pines. 

Above photo is the back of the tablet marker at the top of this post.  Below is a stock photo lifted from the internet of an American foxhound, just in case someone reads this who has no idea what the breed looks like.  With the exception of the foxhound, photos were all taken November 27, 2009.

Clark-Dickey-Smith cemeteries, Sabine County, Texas

This is an odd site in Sabine County, Texas:  two cemeteries located literally spitting distance from each other.  In urban terms, they're less than half a standard city block apart.  No other traces of a community remain so it's difficult to say how they were located historically, e.g., were they once separated by a road?  As the book-on-a-stick notes, at one time a settlement existed that included several families.  I'm told there was also a cane mill, but no evidence of that settlement other than the cemeteries exists today. 

The Clark-Dickey cemetery is larger and, at a guess, appears to have been used for a longer time.  There are a number of fieldstone markers in addition to the commercial stones.  The cast concrete markers with hand lettering appear to be fairly recent, and may have been added at about the same time the historical marker was planted.

The Clark-Dickey cemetery includes half a dozen or so of the vernacular cast concrete tablet style markers like the one shown below; none were made using lettering kits.

Both cemeteries are surrounded by chain-link fence that's fairly new and in generally good condition, although a tree had fallen recently (within the past year) on the fencing for the Smith cemetery. 

The photo above is from the Smith Cemetery; it's the most noticeable grave there.  No inscription was visible on the tablet. 

The book-on-a-stick erected by the Texas Historical Commission suggests that both cemeteries began as family cemeteries, but notes a connection between the two, making it even odder that they're physically separate.  Local sources suggested that the fencing is wrong, the two cemeteries were connected, and more graves exist than are currently known or marked.  Whether or not that's true would require a thorough archeological survey, including the use of ground penetrating radar, a highly unlikely scenario given that both cemeteries appear to fall within the Sandy Creek riparian zone and are thus unlikely to be impacted by any future logging operations on that portion of the Forest. 

Both cemeteries are located on the Sabine National Forest.

Roadside Memorial, M-38, Upper Michigan

Roadside memorials have intrigued me for years with their odd mix of paganism and Christianity.  With the exception of the descanos erected in regions with sizable Hispanic populations, like New Mexico, the typical roadside memorial tended to be both spontaneous and ephemeral: a flimsy cross that quickly breaks down, a few flowers, occasionally some empty beer cans or a piece of the car the person died in.  That's been changing, as this memorial to Edward Disney evidences. 

Mr. Disney died in a traffic accident in 2002, 7 years before I took these photos.  The memorial remains well-maintained, with a large area along the right-of-way kept mowed so the cross continues to be highly visible.  One thing that surprises me, though, given the amount of time and effort that went into creating the memorial and its maintenance, is that the lettering has been allowed to fade.  It's no longer legible from more than a foot or two away. 

The memorial is located on the northside right-of-way for M-38 in Baraga County, Michigan, east of Alston, west of Baraga, and close to the Pine Creek Road.