Greenwood Cemetery - Downed Limbs and Rock Chucks

Downed Limbs and Rock Chucks

A sign that winter has passed are the many downed limbs that have yet to be removed.

A couple of trees are looking incredibly sad and I hope they don't topple.

I've noticed that the ground crews are avoiding cleaning up from winter.

And, a sign that Spring has arrived - rock chucks tearing up the cemetery.

These are very destructive and like to burrow under the gravestones.

I hope they do some eradication, but I won't be holding my breath.

Greenwood Cemetery - Spring is Coming...

Spring is trying to break through here...

At least the grass in greening up and the trees are beginning to get their leaves....
but, we are still freezing at night and getting snow flurries.

This is Section 5 at Greenwood Cemetery.

Pilot Butte is in the background and the building is the Mausoleum.

Watching the Arrival of Spring

Spring is trying hard to break through the still freezing nights here....

The trees are showing the development of leaves.

The dandelions are uncontrollably painting the ground yellow.

In the midst of all this, some time ago, someone planted the tree wells of this gravestone

with daffodils and grape hyacinths at Greenwood Cemetery,

and they have now burst into bloom.

The squirrels are running around and picking up pinecones.

The birds are loud and busy.

Soon, the trees will be full....

Unknown - Section 2 Row 13

We have had an epidemic in Oregon of people stealing things metal

and selling them as scrap - plaques in cemeteries (like this one)

plagues on historical things (the plaque at the Rex Barber Bridge)

and statues (the statue of Sacagawea at the Lewis & Clark Fort in Astoria)

Sad and disgusting behavior.

 and --- Rex Barber is the man who shot down Hirohito.

Gardiner Cemetery

Gardiner Cemetery
located in Gardiner, Douglas County, Oregon

The cemetery is terraced into the hillside on the north end of what remains of Gardiner, Oregon. Most of the headstones are quite old and some are struggling with the elements and the passage of time. These gravestones belong, for the most part, to the early pioneers of the area.

This picture shows how steep the hillside is with the reference of a 6' tall man.

Abby J Lockwood

Born November 7, 1849
Died - July 11, 1876

The bed frame above the grave is rusted, but in remarkable shape for being close to the ocean and in a very wet environment. I have seen these bed frames before and assume that it is a symbol of an everlasting resting place, but have not been able to find a reference in the guides to cemetery symbology. If anyone has a reference to direct me to, I would appreciate it.

We were not able to spend a lot of time here - racing a bit between the raindrops and in search of a meal. We had read that there was an upcoming community of artists and small bistros in Gardiner - their demise preceded our arrival, but their previous existence allowed us to discover this pioneer cemetery.

Gardiner was a harbor community along the Umpqua River. It was founded by merchant Gardiner when his ship wrecked - what was salvaged was moved here and it became a town. It became a noted port for wood mills and wood products. Destroyed by fire in 1880, the town was quickly rebuilt and became one of the busiest port cities on the Oregon coast. It not only shipped out of the area, but ran paddle wheel boats up the Umpqua River. The mills and paper companies were active until 1999. They have since been razed and the land lies empty.

From- Oregon Geographic Names:

Gardiner is on the north bank of the Umpqua River nearits mouth. It is an historic community of Oregon, and bears the name of a Boston merchant who sought to trade on the river. His vessel, Bostonian, was wrecked at the mouth of the Umpqua on October 1, 1850. Most of the goods on the vessel were saved and moved to the location of what was subsequently the town of Gardiner. The place became the headquarters of the Umpqua customs district in 1851, with Colin Wilson as collector. The community is described in the Oregonian for June 23, 1855. The post office of Gardiner's City was established on June 10, 1851, with George L Snelling first postmaster. The form Gardiner City was used on October 20, 1853, which was the date that Harrison Spicer became postmaster. The official name is now Gardiner.



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I Want My Global Warming

I was really looking forward to Walking in Graveyards today. I planned to start a new one that I am particularly fond of, and want to finish before the winter sets in. However, it's getting ready to snow...

Usually, the end of September and beginning of October is Indian Summer - not snow. And, I love Indian Summer days.

I want my Global Warming.

Update: Friday and Saturday were cold with intermittent showers, hail, corn snow, but Sunday morning, I woke to about 3" of very wet snow covering everything - including those deciduous trees that haven't even lost their leaves yet. Insane weather! Glad the wood is in and split!

Second Update: That heavy wet snow took a toll on the trees - throughout town, trees are down, huge branches are broken and shrubs are mangled. Really a destructive little storm!

Burials Under a Tree

Damn and damn again....

Terrebonne Pioneer Cemetery has some very old and very beautiful pine/fir (not sure) trees in it. While it looks cool and comfortable under those old trees and a charming place for a headstone, what the pitch does to the gravestones is sad, sad, sad.

I have gingerly been picking off the large bits of pitch and dislodging the stuck pine needles before photographing. Very messy.

Today I was wearing a brand new shirt ---- and managed to get pitch all over it. I will try the ice cube trick and the SHOUT, but.... Yes, it's in very obvious places.

Moral of the story --- you chose:
1. Don't wear new clothes to the cemetery.
2. Don't clean up graves to photograph.
3. Don't bury your loved ones under trees that are pitchy or leafy.

Update: Ice cubes and patient scraping followed by SHOUT worked again - always amazes me when it does!

Cemetery Transcription ~ Getting Started

Starting a cemetery transcription seems to also involve a few false starts....
Enthusiasm bounds forth prior to logic setting in.

Where do you start?
How do you keep track of what you are doing?
What information should you collect?
Who are you collecting for?
And, could you please set a schedule for the sprinklers?!

I found the Oregon Gravestones project and thought, what a good thing for me to do - to get me out of the house.... thinking I would be working locally, I signed up! Then, I was told someone else was doing the cemetery I was planning on. It's not like there is only one cemetery around - and that goes for everywhere. I thought, I'll do the old Pioneer cemetery in Terrebonne.

It's funny, you begin with a certain perception and it all gets stopped when you realize that nothing is as you thought it would be!

First, I thought it would take no time at all to whip through this small cemetery - HA! Since I am also taking pictures, this is far more time consuming than I ever dreamed. I didn't start in a terribly logical manner either - unusual for me and proving that I didn't really know what to expect. Wandering through and reading headstones was far different than recording information, cleaning the headstone and taking pictures. So far, a good day's work is 50 stones.

Then, I come home, enter the information on the transcription list - upload the photos, crop and re-size them - check for obituaries online - enter the information and download the photos to the data bases I am working with. HOURS!

I'm generating a lot of paper. I don't much like that, but I need the paper until it is in the data bases.

The thing I did expect was how some gravestones just reach out to you and say - don't you wish you knew more about me? And, for the most part, one can only imagine!

Walking in Graveyards

I have always enjoyed walking through graveyards - reading epitaphs and enjoying the beauty of the carvings.

Part of my family lore was about 'Decoration Day' - my Grandmother could never quite get it through her head that Memorial Day was for fallen troops not for every human who had ever died. It was fortunate for me, though. Because of her persistence on the issue, she would send my Grandfather off to the cemetery with flowers. He often took me with him. Yes, he placed the flowers my Grandmother sent him with, but he also took a box of flags and would walk through the cemetery and place the flags on the graves of any of the veterans. He would talk to me about America and about patriotism and about respect. He would talk to me about death and dying. And, oh how I wish I could remember all of the rich family stories he shared. My Grandfather was a simple man, but he had a deep understanding about many things, simply put, Grandpa was a wise man, and I was blessed to spend these days with him.

In addition to giving me good, quality time with a man I loved dearly, it also taught me about the calm and the peacefulness of cemeteries. It taught me about the richness of history to be found in such quiet and unassuming places.

Recently, I found a way to combine my appreciation of cemeteries with doing something useful. I have been transcribing cemetery records and putting them up on genealogy sites. This site will be about my days spent in cemeteries, observations and thoughts, and the cemeteries and gravestones themselves.

I hope you enjoy your visit here.