Cemetery Junction – Eight Groovy Graveyard Pictures

The very first thing that comes to my mind when I think “cemetery” is a polka.  My favorite polka actually.  Specifically Tom Waits “Cemetery Polka“.

The second thing I think of is a night I jumped a fence in eastern France with a Moroccan archaeologist, a Spanish archaeologist and a French kid who said “Ya.  Nobody will care.  Don’t worry.  It’s just a cemetery”.

It was an American military cemetery from World War I. After spending an hour searching through the graves for all the kids from New Mexico and Colorado I sat down and reflected on the absolute ridiculous waste of that war – and of most wars.

And then the police came.  It seems as if someone did care. Spending the night in a rural police station sipping coffee is was not the worst moment of my life, that to be sure.

Today I take my kids to picnic in the Kit Carson Cemetery in our home of Taos, New Mexico.  Its the most peaceful of places and a location where one can wander and learn – and nap.

I don’t find cemeteries places of sorrow but of wonder.

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January Smith Sadler

January says: “This photo was taken at the Elizabethtown cemetery in New Mexico; 4.8 miles north of Eagle’s Nest on NM 38. Now a ghost town, Elizabethtown, the first incorporated city in New Mexico and founded by Commander of Fort Union William H Moore, was named after his young daughter, Elizabeth Catherine Moore. At its height of prosperity, in 1870, it had just over 7,000 residents. The most famous being the serial killer Charles Kennedy who was responsible for 14 known murders including his own son, and the famed vigilante Clay Allison.

Today, all that stands are a few old buildings and a cemetery with many graves including children under the age of 3 years old. The overgrown grass makes it difficult to see some of the graves and some without names entirely. Just being there and thinking of the past was a humbling experience and I plan on going back.”

Find more from January here.

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John Colby Bartlett

Colby says: “In a corner of our world, under the silent watch of Black Mesa, generations sleep, tucked and huddled in the sand. For centuries the dead have been laid in the small walled yard in front of the Spanish mission church. According to my friend, it usually takes a half a dozen tries to find a “new spot”.

A hundred or so of us living, greatly out numbered by those who are not, gathered this late morning to see our friend be married. I caught a young girl walking past generations of her ancestors to celebrate a part of life, that for those others has passed…..”

Pueblo de San Ildefonso, New Mexico, September, 2011

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Steve Collins

Steve says: “I love the stories that go with the stones you find in cemeteries. The cemetery in Como, Colorado is now overgrown with aspens and brambles. The days of Como as a bustling switching station town for the trains from the ore fields are long past. Como is now a sleepy little town but the cemetery is full of  great stories and questions. Who was Daisy Stark? What was the cause of her early demise at age 13? Maybe we’ll never know.”

Find more from Steve here.

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John Mata

John says: “A very old grave, resting with at least a few others, in the beautiful courtyard at the Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcala, located on the Eastern end of San Diego’s Mission Valley, just along the San Diego River. This Mission was the very first Spanish mission established in California. There are 21 Spanish missions spanning the entire state of California, all established during this period, 1967 through 1823. These missions were comprised both religious and military activities. Their “mission” was to spread Christian faith among the local Native Americans. These missions were the first major Euro-efforts to colonize along the West Coast, giving the Spanish a major foothold on the new frontier.”

Find more from John here.

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Debra Schmidt

Jim O’Donnell

 

Jess Van Wickel

“A Surfer’s Cemetery” 

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