will you remember me?

Leaving a small stone on a grave is an act of symbolically placing a marker for someone. I think of it as a way of showing remembrance for the person. It's a tradition I really love.

life and death

The Parker-Hickman homestead is an awesome place to explore if you ever find yourself in Newton County, Arkansas. There's a small cemetery behind the homestead, which to my surprise was full of daffodils. It was really lovely to see a still cared for cemetery in the middle of the forest.

losing luster

Here's another shot from the bulldozed cemetery. I won't go into another rant about it. It's sad.
:-/

scars

Arkansas was part of the Civil War and being South of the Mason-Dixon we were on a side I don't particularly agree with. Arkansas isn't really saturated with Civil War history. So visiting states that had a lot more fighting it's weird to realize how recent it was.

When I was at the Colonial Park Cemetery I didn't really understand all the tombstones along the back walls. At first I just assumed they were stones that broke over the years. It didn't make much sense to me though. I mean if you take the time to collect broken stones and build holders into the brick wall for them, why not just repair and replace them where they should be? I googled it when I got a chance and found the real reason.

During the Civil War Union troops camped in the cemetery for a while. They broke stones to make room for their tents. I guess after the war either there wasn't records of where the stones should go or it was too large of a task to replace them. The stones were placed along the back wall. They remain as scars from a war with ourselves.

forgotten

I visit a lot of cemeteries now. They are peaceful. They are our history. They are photogenic. I'm used to weathered cemeteries. It's fairly common to see tombstones that are worn down to markers one forth the original size. It's impossible to fight nature.

This place was different though. These tombstones weren't battling nature; they were battling mankind. The back of the cemetery had recently been leveled. It looked like someone was able to start a construction project right over the broken markers. It's just sad to me. Heartbreaking. Even if the land was that valuable, there wasn't anything they could do to preserve the markers? Seriously?

I mean, the Colonial Park Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia had stones broken during the Civil War. The Union troops decided to set up camp there, and broke stones to make room for tents. After the war, it wasn't clear where the stones belonged so they were lined up along the walls of the cemetery.



It is possible to still respect the dead. I'm just saying. There has to be a better solution than bulldozing a cemetery.