Take a walk with me on Memorial day

I love graveyards - I don't think they are scary places at all . . . except in scary movies. In real life, I think they are peaceful. The epitaphs on some of the old gravestones are often funny, insightful, or just really odd. I like to look at them all. I travel a bit with my work, and I often stop at graveyards just to take a look at the old ones.

Natural Spring in the Memorial Park in Parowan, Utah

One of the oddest graves I have ever seen is a grave in the Peoa cemetery where a very large boulder rolled down the mountain and landed atop an unmarked grave. The good people of Peoa then put a plaque on the boulder explaining the circumstances of the poor soul buried there. Apparently he was one of the Mobbers who murdered the prophet Joseph Smith in Carthage.

Why he would move to Utah is beyond me (considering the story is true). In any case, the man was not liked, apparently, and was not nice, apparently, and when he met his maker he was all alone in his demise as his house burned down around him. When he was finally found, they buried him in a far corner of the Peoa cemetery, far away from any other family graves. They really did not like this guy apparently.

The plaque on the boulder tells the story, and whomever placed the history there believed the boulder was fitting - never wanting him coming out of that grave, I guess. I don't have a picture yet, but I will take one to prove I didn't make this up.

Here are some photos of other graves I did take pictures of.

I stopped in Parawan, where some of my Grandfather Eyre's
side of the family settled, lived and died.

This grave stone represents
my Grandfather Eyre's Great Grandmother,
Elizabeth Collins Gillins, born 7 Sep 1799
in Newton, Lincolnshire, England.
The children buried with her are her grandchildren
who died in infancy or as little children.

This next grave marks the resting place of my great great grandmother,
Susan Fish Smith, born 13 Mar 1824 in Norwich, Norfolk, England.

This is a grave I have photographed before; (in fact, I think I have it posted on my blog somewhere). But here's an updated one.

Great great Grandma's grave looks the same. I look older. I guess I should just have posted the old photo, but life does march on. We are talking grave stones here, after all. I may have one foot in there, so my children think.

How about this guy?

Just outside of Milford, Utah I ran upon this handsome fellow.

Milford sports at least one individual's odd and funny sense of humor. As you drive by, the lights of this old vehicle light up. That's when you look over and notice the driver. He may be more Halloween-like than memorial-like, but it was the funnest part of the graveyard walks.


This is a ghost town grave yard up Spanish Fork Canyon

This graveyard hold no significance to me, personally,
except that it is very well tended
and an interesting place, so I stopped to take photos.

I found that there were far more lizards there than graves.
The place was abuzz with the creatures.

Speaking of Ghost towns. I also stopped at Silver City


It's a lonely Ghost town these days.
I snapped this photo, but it is colored in photoshop.
It just looks fitting as a memorial, don't you think?