Category Archives: Cemetery
Angel
The sculpture, known as the Umlauf Angel, keeps watch over the front section of the City of Lubbock Cemetery. The Angel, by internationally known sculptor Charles Umlauf, was commissioned by the City in 1958.
By 1994, things were looking bad, as she had developed cracks due to weathering. Restoration in 1995 and 1996 was successful. Sort of: only a few days after the restored sculpture was complete vandals (two high school boys, later arrested) chipped away at the wing tips, causing $1,200 in damages.
She’s fine these days, casting her gaze skyward amidst the gravestones.
The City of Lubbock Cemetery
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 2.3.2009
Cross/fence
I met up with my blogging friend from Always Backroads, and we found this a nice little cemetery in Puerto de Luna, New Mexico.
One of the graves had an iron fence around it, and it was topped with this arrangement of crosses. You can tell that someone still looks after the fence and repairs it when warranted. Not all the graves there were that lucky.
UPDATE:
My friend Ehpem wondered what this looked like in color. And since we here at One Day | One Image strive to keep our reader(s) happy, here it is, as requested. Opinions? Comments? Any further requests?
El Calvario Cemetery
Puerto de Luna, New Mexico
photographed 9.21.2013
The dregs of dreams, 3
Weathered wooden cross stuck in hard ground, sad offerings beneath them.
Most of the graves are unmarked. Many of the dead buried here were victims of accidents in the nearby mercury mines, which were active in the early 1900s. Others were victims of the 1918-1919 flu epidemic.
Many of the graves have offerings – a vase, a candle, a flag, a letter, a handful of coins – which only amplify the mysteries.
Terlingua, Texas
photographed 1.20.2013
It used to be something else
I was drawn to this cross from the instant I stepped into El Calvario cemetery: it stood higher than everything but the few trees.
Later, I noticed that the wood had been used before. The wood in the crosspiece is a length of treated lumber, like you’d use for a deck or something that was going to be in contact with the ground; that’s why it has all those little horizontal lines. And the upright was something else, too – see how the parts on either side of the crosspiece are smooth compared to the lower section that’s had something nailed onto it.
A lot of mysteries, here.
Puerto de Luna, New Mexico
photographed 9.21.2013
A simple cross, in the hard ground
Just the other day I posted a photograph from the cemetery in Marathon; that one was taken in the part of the cemetery that must be the lowest point, where the scarce rain drains to: it was lush with grasses overtaking the headstone.
This shot is actually more typical of the place: dry, bare ground and dry, wooden crosses.
It’s hard country out there.
Marathon, Texas
photographed 8.17.2013
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