Sometimes – Out In The Sage …
Pile of rocks under an old sagebrush. Wooden cross with no markings visible. Faded white paint likely not as old as the grave.
Some sage can live as long as 70-100 years. This one’s not young but not dying either.
I’ve been known to just wander off through the brush – no paths, no hint of a trail. Tracks of jackrabbits, coyotes, fox perhaps – other small creatures … but no obvious evidence of man. Even so, “objects” can be found – rarely, often only shards of now-purple glass (which is due to manganese in the glass and usually dates from the 1880s to pre-WWI), maybe pieces of ceramic plate, a few nails … and even more rarely, a grave marked only by a rectangular pile of sun-aged rocks. Even more rarely, a grave with a marker.
I forget where I found this grave. There were no markings but the cross was relatively new as indicated by paint remnants and minimal weathering of the wood.
Someone knew …
But I didn’t.
So I took the photo and travelled on.
I wonder if that’s not a fake grave. Someone’s idea of being funny to future passersby.
That wood looks modern, like what you can buy at Lowes. There is a half lap where the 2 boards meet, requiring tools to create. Perhaps they are joined with nails.
The wood is weather worn but still in good shape, structurally sound. The rocks don’t seem plentiful enough to be a grave cover.
In the absence of a digging device or very hard turf they would stack gathered rocks on the corpus delicti.
If the installer took the time to create a cross with tools, why not an indication of the identity of the occupant?
Maybe it’s there as reminder. Or witness. Or devotion.
jd, I agree. A reminder of our roots as a nation and our downfall. Most of what ails America could be corrected if we had some “Old time religion” preached from our pulpits. Sadly that is not the case. Most of what people get when they go to church these days is pablum–pablum puked at them by anything but the real thing.
Doubtful it’s fake. Hell of a place to pile rocks as a joke. Besides, the gravestones were mostly buried in dirt with an aged patina. The cross is newer and stones were placed to support it but wood lasts a long time in that dry climate. I think jd has it right.
When I first married into my DH’s family I heard a rumor that there were Indians buried on their land. When I asked his aunt (Pres. of the local Republican women’s group) if this was true, her answer was quick, concise, and without explanation: “they were caught cheating at cards.!”