Cemeteries, Graveyards, Burying Grounds, & Churchyards
Along Route 60 just outside of Socorro, New Mexico and surrounded by white sands on our way to the Very Large Array, I saw a roadside memorial substantial enough to warrant a stop.
I normally keep my blog dedicated to cemeteries but occasionally I discover a place of remembrance so unique that I want to share it with you.
Along Route 60 just outside of Socorro, New Mexico and surrounded by white sands on our way to the Very Large Array, I saw a roadside memorial substantial enough to warrant a stop. I am not at all familiar with roadside memorials. I hope you enjoy these pictures.
Vista Memory Gardens cemetery is on Cemetery Road at the end of Dale Street off Route 85 outside of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.
I remember attending a grave stone conference one year where one major point of interest was methods of reducing graffiti and vandalism in cemeteries. One participant in the discussion offered a very clever solution. “Put up a sign warning of Rattlesnakes” he said. There was a collective gasp and a round of laughter as everyone understood the effects such a sign would have on misguided visitors. After all, no misguided visitor wants to be surrounded by rattlesnakes in a cemetery at night.
“WARNING: THIS IS A KNOWN RATTLESNAKE AREA” The sign’s worn lettering speaks of a hot desert sun baking everything in its uninterrupted midday rays. Contrasted to a brilliantly colored yet harsh desert backdrop the sign’s significance is not lent to one erected as a simple ploy to keep ne’re-do-well scoundrels at bay. This sign meant what it said and I took its words to heart. Well, actually, I took them as a challenge of excited expectation as I tried my best to find a Rattlesnake within the confines of the cemetery. I would have loved to see a Rattlesnake sprawled out atop a gravemarker in the mid afternoon sunshine.
Vista Memory Gardens cemetery is on Cemetery Road at the end of Dale Street off Route 85 outside of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. As can be expected, the cemetery is surrounded by dusty dry landscape with slight hills to the north which must harbor dozens of rattlers that slither from their burrows to scare unwitting visitors to Vista Memory Gardens.
Caretakers take obvious pride in their work. The grounds are clean and well manicured. Though I love natural and native landscapes in cemeteries, the caretakers have planted sod and keep the grounds well groomed to give an overall pleasing green tone to the cemetery. There are a few trees that give shade to an otherwise barren landscape.
Elephant Butte Cemetery, Truth or Consequences New Mexico. Rattlesnakes, desert winds, looming thunderstorms, mountain lions, and dead end tracks.
What started as a quick 10 minute stop in Truth or Consequences New Mexico ends in a story of rattlesnakes, desert winds, looming thunderstorms, mountain lions, and dead end tracks.
I love the hard-to-find cemeteries and I am a very tenacious cemetery hunter. Once I know the general location of a cemetery there is rarely much that can stop my quest to find, document, and photograph the interesting tombstones located within. I have crawled through thickets, slopped through mud, ignored a few “No Trespassing” signs, and faced more than my share of wild animals in attempts to find out-of-the-way cemeteries.
While driving across New Mexico, a friend Facebooked me about some of the best Tamales and Chili Relanos in Truth or Consequences. So, I stopped into La Cocina to check the local fare. While there I learned about a cemetery called Elephant Butte located in the desert far off the main road. YAY, the hunt was on.
I plugged the coordinates into my GPS and waited for directions. “Turn right on Pacific Road” Now, if you have never been to the American southwest, you might not know that a simple direction such as “Turn right on Pacific Road” can turn into a 3 hour ordeal leading you down sand covered paths far into the desert. It turned out Pacific Road is such a path.
After 30 minutes driving on an increasingly sandy desert road through automobile junkyards and obscure construction sites, I finally turned around to find an alternate route. Back on paved road signs began to appear for Elephant Butte Park. My excitement peaked but then collapsed as a “ROAD CLOSED” sign block the entrance over a partially completed dam project. “DAM!” I mean, it’s a shame that dam wasn’t complete. Elephant Butte cemetery was only a mile away.
Back to the trusty GPS I found an alternate route. Directions came loud and clear until “Navigate Off Road.” Ugh! It was getting late and a storm whipped itself into a frenzy. Off into the horizon I could see sheets of rain and flashes of lightning. Not only was a storm bearing down but the sun was going down.
A half mile of cross country trekking stood between me and Elephant Butte Cemetery.
Now, I am not much of a snake expert but I do know that rattlesnakes are plentiful in this part of New Mexico and I also know that they become active at dusk. On flat land it is easy to walk between the scrub brush and avoid snake encounters. However, a Butte isn’t flat and a 200′ climb up craggy brush covered rocky outcropping seemed like a perfect opportunity for many dangerous rattlesnake encounters. Ugh! Did I blaze up the climb and hope for the best?
No. I chose safety first and headed back for the car to look for yet another alternate route.
As the sun’s angle changed toward the end of day, I noticed a double track trail skirting a hillside leading toward the direction of the cemetery’s supposed location. Ugh! If only I had a 4-wheel drive vehicle. The Cemetery Detectivemobile wasn’t up for the challenge of foot deep ruts and boulders the size of small mountain lions. Speaking of mountain lions….nah, I’ll save that for later.
While the Cemetery Detectivemobile wasn’t up the the challenge, I am a lifelong trail runner and a 1/2 mile trail run on desert double track is barely a challenge worth mentioning. With trail running shoes cinched tight, my GPS in one hand, and my camera in the other I took off for the run.
“Navigate Off Road” the reassuring GPS lady kept screaming in my ear.
0.4 Miles
0.3 Miles
As the distance decreased I felt increasingly confident I would find Elephant Butte Cemetery and make my way back to the car well before sunset.
0.4 Miles Oops, going in the wrong direction.
0.3 Miles Ahhh…the path curved around a grouping of cacti and I was heading in the right direction again.
0.2 Miles My legs felt strong as I sped up in an attempt to reach the cemetery quicker than I anticipated. The thought of rattlesnakes didn’t even bother me any longer as I knew their fastest strikes could never catch my Superman-speed legs. A couple lengths of a football field was all that was left and I knew I could cover that distance in a minute or two. Success of another conquered, difficult-to-find cemetery was within easy reach.
Or so I thought.
Just then, at the height of my confidence, the trail went cold as it invisibly descended into the murky depths of a desert canyon. “Never mind this small inconvenience” I thought as I powered down one side and prepared to ascend the other side. “Oh no” the trail became more rugged and definite hand-over-feet scrambling would be needed to make the ascent. “Meh! No worries. I can make it” I convinced myself.
“BLEEP!!!” I wondered why my GPS had just BLEEPED at me and I looked down to a blank screen. “OH NO!” The rechargeable battery within the GPS only gives an hour of charge. Since it wasn’t fully charged at the outset of my cross desert trail run, it decided to quit at the exact point it needed it most. Oh how I longed for the familiar “Navigate Off Road” from the sweet voiced lady that lives inside my GPS.
Most GPSes have enough built in reserve power to run the unit for a few minutes after the battery run out. As I looked down to find the power switch, I caught a quick glimpse of myself. Here I was in the middle of a snake infested desert with 50 mile per hour storm winds blowing, at sunset, in a pair of trail running shoes, shorts, and a tee shirt.
I was off-trail and about to climb a 200′ butte with a dead GPS unit.
There are some points in life when you make the bold statements such as: “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.” When those points pass and all the torpedoes have missed, you become a hero. However, when the torpedoes have venom filled fangs and are hiding under a darkening, windy, rocky outcropping in the middle of the desert the punishment of failure outweighs the bragging rights of finding one more cemetery.
Looking over my shoulder multiple times as I jogged back to my car, I “if only’d” more times than I can count. If only I had jeans on. If only I had boots on. If only it wasn’t getting dark. If only it wasn’t storming. If only I had a flash light. If only my GPS weren’t dead. I think only one of those “if onlies” could have convinced me to carry on and find the Elephant Butte Cemetery. However, for this day, it wasn’t meant to be.
On my jog back to the car I watched the trail carefully and noticed multiple piles of scat along the trail. Now, I’m not sure what type of animal this scat belonged to but there are many Mountain Lion sightings in this desert and, I believe, in the distance and through the howling wind, I heard the familiar cries of a Big Cat calling out to me and telling me I had made the right choice in leaving Elephant Butte Cemetery for another day.
Nearby: If you are in Truth or Consequences and need your Mexican food fix, check out: La Cocina
South Park Cemetery in Roswell New Mexico was only my second encounter with true southwestern influenced Roman Catholic mourning decorations.
My primary reason for visiting Roswell was to find UFOs, Aliens, and blinking lights in the starlit backdrop of an April New Mexico sky. I am quite sure I spotted a few aliens albeit not of the extra-terrestrial variety. However, I did spy spooky shaped streetlights and a McDonald’s bearing a striking resemblance to a silvery disc embedded and crumpled into a rocky outcropping after an out-of-control plummet through earth’s lower atmosphere.
While the search for Aliens left me cold, tromping though Roswell’s South Park Cemetery lofted my spirits considerably higher than the ability of any weather balloon displayed at the local UFO Museum.
South Park Cemetery was only my second encounter with true southwestern influenced Roman Catholic mourning decorations. I was entranced as colorful ornamentation dazzled me under the brilliant desert sun. Royal blues, baby blues, desert pinks, and brilliant reds adorne every corner of the South Park Cemetery. I love the characterization of Mary trodding on the serpent that is so prevalent in South Park Cemetery.
I truly anticipated watching a famous New Mexico sunset from South Park Cemetery but, unfortunately, management close their office doors around 5:00 PM. The caretakers did not shoo me away and the gates were left open but I was on my way before anyone asked me to do so.
Awww well, I spent a good 90 minutes exploring the tombstones and counting all the Mary and Jesus statues. Besides, the darkening sky meant my gaze would soon turn away from ground level tombstone observations and, instead, turn to the nighttime ethereal sphere where I hoped to catch a glimpse of blinking lights and little green men beckoning me to join them above.
Nearby Attraction: UFO Museum & Research Center
Ringgold Cemetery, Ringgold Texas
Ringgold Cemetery
In my home state of Tennessee, I am used to finding cemeteries nestled within huge forested lands. If the cemetery is on an expanse of farmland or atop one of our beautiful mountains, I am often lucky enough to enjoy a few miles of unobstructed visibility.
In contrast to our landscape back home, the plains of west Texas offer amazing vistas that I just don’t get to view in Tennessee. On my cemetery hunting trip across America, I found a cemetery with such a vista driving just outside the dusty Texas town of Ringgold.
Upon pulling off I-82, I expected to find a small barren piece of land with no greenery in sight. Instead, Ringgold Cemetery offered a wide expanse of green grass offset by an azure blue horizon. Miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles await visitors to Ringgold Cemetery.
The grave sites are sparse yet many tombstones stand in contrast to the mostly flat land.
Nearby: Miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles.
Nacona is a nice cemetery and I was surprised at the greenery.
Driving down route 82 just outside of Nacona, Texas, I passed a couple of great looking, small, dusty cemeteries with not a touch of grass around them. April winds blew sandy soil into small ripples and tombstones looked sandblasted from all the fine granular soil endlessly pelting them. One after another I passed these cemeteries vowing to stop at the next. I love these types of cemeteries.
Nacona Cemetery popped up on my GPS and I envisioned an old west cemetery similar to the ones I had already driven by. I was surprised at the greenery within the cemetery and the well manicured grass. The greenery is pleasing though I also enjoy cemeteries that allow the natural substrate to show through.
Nacona is still active and over 5200 people have been interred there. The graves are very well documented and the Nacona Cemetery website gives virtual visitors a tremendous amount of information of the burial sites. Well done.
In Texas, even Jesus wears cowboy boots.
In Texas, even Jesus wears cowboy boots.
I have many fond memories of Texas but there are several that stand out as high points. First, you can drive down some two-lane roads at 75 MPH and people in front of you will ease onto the shoulder (while maintaining their speed) to let you pass. Second, the stars at night really are big and bright. Third, even Jesus wears cowboy boots.
I pulled into Paris Texas under an early evening sun with enough daylight left for a quick tour of Evergreen Cemetery. I had heard rumors that a cowboy boot wearing Jesus statue was a must see in this sprawling and very crowded cemetery. With eyes peeled I drove row after row of graveled streets looking at the base of every monolith. Cowboy boots, much less on Jesus’ feet, were nowhere to be seen.
Dusk approached quicker than I wanted and as I turned onto a seemingly perpetually long row of tombstones I caught the glimpse of a murky blurr. Was that Jesus, in cowboy boots, running through the darkening cemetery? No, it was a bobcat. I grabbed my camera and barreled out of the car in a mad dash to attempt a perfect snapshot of this beautiful bobcat darting amongst the rows of tombstones.
In un-Ansel Adams like fashion I ran at top speed with my camera outstretched toward the bobcat. Little did he realize I was hot on his trail and able to see his furry ears pointing above a tablet-styled tombstone behind which he sought refuge. With visions of O.J. Simpson dashing through airports and hurdling piles of luggage in those late 1970’s Samsonite commercials, my feet propelled me through the air to finally land directly in front of my prey.
Somewhere, in mid-air, I took an instantaneous moment to consider the fullness of my impending predicament. Here I was, in a darkening cemetery running crazily after a frightened wild animal capable of inflicting, if nothing else, deep and infectious lacerations to my limbs and torso. Ah, too late to think of the ramifications, I steadied my index finger on my camera’s shutter release in preparations of what was sure to be an amazing photograph of a beautiful healthy bobcat in front of a southwestern tombstone with a Texas sunset in the back ground. “This is going to be great. What if I am lucky enough to capture the moment when he leaps, claws outstretched, right in front of Jesus’ cowboy boots” I thought microseconds before landing.
Unfortunately, this bobcat’s perfect portrait was not meant to be as he became alert to my whisper-less flight and bolted an instant before my flashbulb illuminated the darkened cemetery.
And with one blurry picture taken, the excitement was finished. Now my task of finding Jesus with cowboy boots and the other interesting grave markers of Evergreen Cemetery was before me.
Luckily, the Texas twilight gave me enough time to find Jesus’ cowboy boots and a few other very interesting markers. See the pictures below.
Nearby Attractions: Jaxx Burgers
Arkansas State Line Cemetery – Texarkana Arkansas
According to the sign on the entry gate, if you are over 8’3” tall you will have to mind your head when entering Arkansas State Line Cemetery.
Arkansas State Line Cemetery – Texarkana Arkansas
According to the sign on the entry gate, if you are over 8’3” tall you will have to mind your head when entering Arkansas State Line Cemetery. Fortunately, The Cemetery Detective is a couple feet (plus some) shy of this mark. State Line Cemetery is either also known as Woodlawn Cemetery or it directly borders Woodlawn Cemetery. Any readers who know the facts about the name of this cemetery are welcome to email me and I will set the record straight in this blog.
There are two particularly interesting tombstones within this cemetery that stood out. The first is a very detailed carving of a broken tree that adornes Abraham Parking’s tombstone.
The second carving is of a little girl with a missing arm that stands guard of Maggie Purifoy’s grave site and overlooks, with downcast eyes, visitors to her grave site.
Chinese Cemetery and Live Oak Cemetery, Greenville Mississippi
I am often intrigued by the differences between well maintained cemeteries and those that have fallen into disrepair. What factors contribute to one cemetery being neatly maintained versus another, in essentially the same location, being allowed to become over grown and strewn with litter?
While visiting Chinese Cemetery and Live Oak Cemetery in Greenville, MS I found these two adjacent cemeteries portrayed very different levels of maintenance. Both cemeteries where gated and fenced although Live Oak Cemetery had an open design that allowed for visitors 24 hours per day while the Chinese Cemetery’s gates were locked after official visiting hours and did not allow for visitors during the nighttime hours.
Chinese Cemetery displayed a distinct ethnic pride and all persons interred within the cemetery were of apparently similar ethnic heritage. Live Oak Cemetery did not appear to have a cultural reference other than to reflect the community, at large, surrounding it. While the community appeared to be socioeconomically depressed I do not find in my cemetery research, that socioeconomic status, by itself, directly correlates to the general upkeep of a cemetery. I have visited many well-kept cemeteries in many depressed neighborhoods.
Above and beyond willingness and ability to pay money to have entire cemeteries and individual gravesites maintained, community pride seems to be an important factor in general upkeep of a community cemetery as does a core group of concerned citizens who take it upon themselves to instill community pride in a well-kept cemetery. If I were to hypothisise, I would suppose that Chinese Cemetery is cared for by a close-knit community of friends and family members who have a continuing desire to honor the interred.
Conversely, Live Oak Cemetery might have recently lost their core group of close-knit members of the community who, in years past, took great pride in properly maintaining their family’s plots. Without an emphasis for the need of community involvement, a cemetery such as Live Oak Cemetery can quickly become overgrown and derelict.
With a small amount of community involvement, Live Oak Cemetery can quickly be turned around and become as well cared for as Chinese Cemetery in Greenville, Mississippi.
Nearby: Tamale Shop
Helm Cemetery – Shaw Mississippi
Helm Cemetery – Shaw Mississippi. If spring warming had caused crop growth to be a few inches higher we would have never seen the cemetery on the horizon. We were driving down Highway 61 on a late April day and I dare say if our trip had been delayed until May we would have completely missed Helm Cemetery.
Like so many cemeteries we pass along the roadside, this Cemetery hides engulfed in a farmer’s field. It is appropriate though since many of these cemeteries are populated with farmers and sharecroppers of old.
We didn’t stay long. The muddy ground made for difficult foot navigation toward and through the cemetery.