cemeteries

Throwing it back to November’s road trip again! (Scroll on down to the bottom of this post for a complete list of posts about this trip in order)

The last full day of our trip was all about making our way, slowly but surely, back into Colorado so that we find a hotel close to the airport for our flight the next morning. We didn’t really have many things mapped out and we’d be covering a lot of ground that we had already gone over a few days earlier. Roadtrips are weird because they’re equal parts rushing, and just sightseeing at our leisure. Like, it’s totally fine to spend all day wandering around somewhere that wasn’t exactly planned but the last thing we want to do is drive around looking for one specific thing. Some Google research told us there was lots to explore but there were also lots of mixed reviews on how accessible said spots were. We decided to just wing it and drive. If we found something worth photographing that’d be great. If we didn’t that just meant we’d get to the hotel sooner to try and sleep off our colds!

While cruising down the highway we spotted an interesting looking sign in just enough time to slam on the brakes and pull in. The sign read Mill Fork Cemetery. I had nooo idea what to expect but I was excited because I had said earlier in the day “I just want to check out like one more cemetery before we go home.” As we crept slowly up the rough driveway I spotted a rickety wooden bridge off to the left. The only thing visible past that was a fence. I could not jump out of the car fast enough. I darted to the bridge, tip toed over it and excitedly opened the gate. Initially I was a bit underwhelmed. There were only a traditional headstones, there rest were small plaques. Inside the big fenced in area was a few other fenced in areas. The more I looked around though, the more I realized what incredible find this was!

Mill Fork Cemetery is super small, FindAGrave lists a mere forty-six memorials, but this place sure packs a punch. Maybe it’s the surrounding landscape? Or the fact that it’s so well maintained? I mean, how many cemeteries have you been to that have a guestbook!? While not the prettiest or easiest to photograph, the small fenced off areas inside the larger fence felt so intimate. The pristine grounds made it clear someone cared very very much about this place. The guestbook, which was housed in a small house shaped box, made you feel welcome. Visiting here didn’t feel like you were invading someone’s personal space. Instead I felt like I had been invited to be apart of something really special.

By the end of our short visit at Mill Fork Cemetery I had already declared that it ranked among my top five favorite cemeteries! If you’re out cruising around Utah, you need to put this spot on your itinerary.

If you’re interested in reading more about Mill Fork Cemetery, I recommend checking out this article from the local newspaper. It seems as though many buried in this incredibly peaceful place died tragically.

Other posts from this trip…

▴ engagement story / Cisco, UT
▴ Antelope Island
▴ Eureka Cemetery
▴ ghost town – Silver City, UT
▴ ghost town – Frisco, UT
▴ abandoned mill

After ooh-ing and ahhh-ing at all the incredible animals on Antelope Island I suggested we head to Eureka, Utah. Eureka is listed on quite a few websites as a ghost town so obviously that was what drew us there. The photos looked promising. Upon arriving we quickly realized this was not that case. I mean, there are definitely abandoned houses, and storefronts but there is also a pretty sizable population of folks who still reside there.

Would it have been cool to get some shots of the abandoned buildings? Sure but shooting buildings that are surrounded by people’s homes is something I’m not super comfortable with. It feels like an invasion of privacy. Neither of us had cell phone service, and hadn’t bothered to really think ahead about where we’d be heading next so the only thing we could do was just keep driving. It didn’t take long before we stumbled upon Eureka Cemetery. It didn’t look all that interesting from the road but it seemed like a decent place stretch our legs for a few minutes. The majority of the graves near the front of the cemetery were fairly new meaning not something I’d photograph but then I spotted ‘big deal’.

I had to get a shot of that grave marker. I hopped out, got my photo, and realized just how lovely the colors were. I’m generally not a fan of shooting in direct sunlight but I’ve found that when I shoot cemeteries in full sun I usually end up loving those photos the most. The lighting conditions mixed with the gorgeous colors (Utah, I love all your yellows!) yielded some spectacular photos! I’m so happy with how these turned out. The incredible mountainous scenery, the barren cemetery, the unique headstones! I’m in loooove!

Other posts from this trip…

▴ engagement story / Cisco, UT
▴ Antelope Island

Like any completely normal adult, I have a cemetery bucket list. Bucket list seems very appropriate in this context. Ya know, just a bunch of cemeteries I want to see before I too kick the bucket. At the very top of this list was a single headstone that is actually in Ohio. One word…

Specimens.

What in the world are ‘specimens’?! I mean, obviously, I know what the word means but having it on a tombstone seems… I don’t even know. It’s weird. It’s concerning. Just like skulls on a headstone, I think the appeal to me is that is just seems like it has to be fake. It seems more like a Halloween decoration. But it’s not. This headstone resides in Columbus at the State of Ohio Asylum for the Insane Cemetery. Specimens in this case are most likely parts that had been removed during standard procedures and kept to study at the hospital. (Tumors, gallbladders, kidneys, etc) After a number of years it’s easy to imagine they’d probably have a pretty large collection of spare parts that they didn’t know what to do with. I guess it’s also in the realm of possibilities that it’s something a lot more sinister…

I don’t remember how long it’s been on my radar but it’s safe to say it’s been a loooong time. From the minuscule amount of information I could find about this place I was under the impression that it was private property. Despite what my previously blogged about adventures would have you believe, there are certain places I’m just sketched out about trespassing. Patrolled state property is definitely one of those places I don’t want to be lurking around on my own.

On the way down to Louisville the weekend before last Jeff asked if I wanted to stop at the cemetery. I’ve honestly been begging him to go down there with me since we met but my lack of information on the place made the drive seem like it might not really be worth it. Since I was driving he mapped it out and got me directions. I was nervous we wouldn’t be able to visit but excited that he was finally willing to go with me.

There are a handful of cemeteries that the mental health hospital used and luck was in my favor because two of them have geocaches. I know that just because there is a geocache somewhere doesn’t make it a legal place to be buuuut you have to agree that “Oh, I’m sorry, we were just looking for a geocache.” sounds a lot better to most people than “I like to photograph cemeteries.”

My main priority was finding the ‘specimen’ headstone so that’s where we headed first. Jeff went straight for the geocache while I proceeded to photograph headstones. I’m not going to lie, finally seeing it was sort of anticlimactic. I had a very vivid vision in my head of what visiting would be like and this was nothing like that at all. We parked in a parking lot and walked into a fairly well manicured cemetery. No sneaking, no feeling like I shouldn’t be there, just a regular old cemetery. Still, I was pleased to be there.

About 25% of the cemetery is filled with headstones similar in shape to the specimen one except they have names and dates. At first I assumed the rest of the cemetery was empty or at least had a bunch of unmarked graves but I quickly realized how wrong I was. Small headstones the size of bricks cover the cemetery. Each one marked with a number and “M”for male or “F” for female. Despite the fact the cemetery wasn’t overgrown or abandoned by any means, its easy to see how in another ten years or so any traces of the smaller headstones could be gone. This was only my second experience with headstones that didn’t have names, only identifying numbers so it’s still a bit perturbing to me. (See Wayne County Home Cemetery) These ones especially so since marking with male or female makes it seem even more anonymous.

After the first cemetery, we headed to a second. I was a bit more hesitant about visiting this one but again, geocaching seemed like a good enough excuse to be there. We parked on a little dirt pull off on the side of a fairly busy road and followed a muddy trail back to the cemetery. The approach to this cemetery was a bit closer to what I imagined the other one being like. Despite following a very clear path there, I felt like we had discovered a little piece of forgotten history.

One of my favorite things about the second cemetery was the arrangement of the headstones. There was a grave marker in the middle that was almost illegible except for “C. O. L. Asylum”. Surrounding that were small, rectangular headstones. There were lots of interesting ones including a few unknowns, a handful with names and only death dates but my favorite of the group had to be “(?) GLICK” Was that their nickname and their real name was unknown? Perhaps Glick was their last name and their first was unknown? Either way, I think it’s really interesting to put a question mark on a headstone.

I am so happy to finally crossed “specimens” off my list of things to see, and even happier to have also visited a second cemetery with equally as interesting headstones. There is so much history packed into these places!

Check out even more interesting graveyards under the “cemeteries” tag!

Wayne County Home Cemetery.

I’ve been itching to get back out and look for interesting new cemeteries to explore. Every time I think I’ve checked out everything interesting in the area I manage to dig up something new I hadn’t seen before. I don’t know how but I ended up searching on the FindAGrave app in the Wooster, OH area. It’s only a little over an hours drive away so not a bad drive if I were to find something cool.

As luck would have it, the area is cemetery central. SO many of them! I was mainly browsing for larger ones but using the list feature I managed to spot “Wayne County Home Cemetery” With only 324 burials, it wasn’t the numbers that excited me – it was the name. “Home” generally meaning the county home or infirmary. Most of the time the people who died in these places didn’t have family to claim their body or the means to provide for their own burial so the home would take care of that for them. The headstones in places like this are usually the bare minimum, no names just numbers. …And that was if you were lucky enough to get one. Unmarked graves certainly weren’t uncommon.

Despite doing fairly extensive research on cemeteries like this I still had yet to visit one. The majority of the nearby ones are actually looked after fairly well… at least by security so I was a bit nervous about making the drive to this one thinking that I might not be able to explore. As luck would have it, it’s actually in the middle of nowhere. I felt like I went down a million little roads lined with cornfields before I finally got there. It was worth the drive.

I thought I had a pretty decent idea of the history of this cemetery. A really interesting story that I was excited to share because it added so much punch to the whole place. I do minimal research of the places I want to visit before hand just to save myself the let down of getting super excited and then not being able to check them out. I dig in after I get home. When I went to confirm and fact check my story for this place though… I came up completely empty handed.

I am so incredibly confused. I swear up and down I read on multiple sites the history of this cemetery. My searches come up with nothing now. I even went through my browser history… still nothing. My only guess is that I simply read about so many other cemeteries I confused one of their stories with this place.

So, I don’t have any back story for you on this cemetery, just that it was established in 1852, but I still think the photos alone are very powerful. There were only a two or three plots that had newer headstones with a name. (One of which was a child that died on my birthday. Spooky!) The rest were simple stones marked simply with a number. Only one of those was decorated.

Check out even more interesting graveyards under the “cemeteries” tag!

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