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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
Night lights
Several of the graves in this cemetery are decorated with solar-powered landscape lights, which gives the place a bit of surprising glow if you’re not familiar with this sort of cemetery decor.
These kinds of lights don’t collect up enough power during the day to burn all night; I think they only last for about eight hours. Which leaves the graves, eventually, in the dark after all.
Englewood Cemetery
Slaton, Texas
photographed 8.10.2013
Some things have surprising connections
I took this shot in April, when the weeping willows surrounding this huge memorial were just starting to leaf out. A few weeks later and the view of the memorial would have been obscured. I’ve looked at this shot several times since I took it, thinking it would be good for the blog, then changing my mind for various reasons that I don’t even recall.
This time, when I looked at it, I was reminded of the little cross I saw in the cemetery in Marathon, Texas, which was also partially obscured by vegetation:
So, from the huge memorial for Potter and Bertha Palmer in the Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, to an unmarked cross in Texas – some things are the same, even when they are different.
Chicago, Illinois
photographed 4.16.2013
Marathon, Texas
photographed 8.17.2013
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
One Day | One Image 