Pioneer Cemetery

[QuietOne]

I was looking at Google Maps to see what else was near enough to get to during my lunch hour and found Pioneer Cemetery. I knew about it, I had driven past it on my way to the Shakespeare Festival site, but I'd never stopped in. It's on Warm Springs Avenue (so named for the geothermal springs in the area. Portions of the sidewalks are actually heated by them. I think parts of St. Luke's Hospital is, too)

Pioneer Cemetery Walking Tour

There's a wide variety of occupants.


One person who's definitely Jewish


One of the governors. The eternal flame turned out not to be so eternal.


A variety of veterans, most from the Civil War and WW I. But as this marker shows, one veteran from the Spanish American war. Also veterans of WW II, Korea, and the first Gulf war. I didn't see any from the Vietnam era, but I haven't looked at every grave, either.

[QuietOne]

Quite a number of immigrants were of one or another of the Germanic countries.







I really liked the streaks of color on this one.

[QuietOne]

It's still in fairly active use. I saw a number of graves where family obviously visits regularly.



There were also quite a number of family plots from the 19th century, and children's graves. Sad, but not unusual for the times.



Some simply had a name, nothing more.

[QuietOne]

Lots of Masons, at least one Eastern Star.




I'm not sure what this motif is supposed to be. To me, it looks like a towel wrapped around a mannequin head!





There's the Fort Boise Military Cemetery that might be within a reasonable distance of my office. Maybe I'll try it next.

[JAS_Photo]

An awesome set, Quiet1. I find graveyards melancholy yet peaceful, a powerful combination actually.

[Bambi]

thanks for taking us on your walk. I found all the gravestones riveting.

[Iguanasan]

They can certainly be an interesting place to take a walk as evidenced by your set of images. Nicely done and thanks for sharing.

[Wicked Dark]

yay, another person who goes into a cemetery on purpose. I like the penultimate shot best.

[casil403]

These are really quite good Q1. One of my fave things is being out on the prairie and finding small farm family grave sites...so neat.

[QuietOne]

Thanks, everyone. These old graveyards tend to point to a lot of history. BTW, I fixed the link for the Prater grave. It's kinda colorful.

Wicked Dark, I wish I'd been using film my camera years ago, when I was visiting Mission San Jose regularly (I lived in the area, had given up photography because eating and living indoors came first). The graveyard, at least then, was minimally maintained, and most people didn't make it out there. There was also a small one just into the foothills in east San Jose, near the Milpitas border. You had to know it was there. The city eventually improved the road, and I have no idea where the graves were moved. The road itself was less interesting, though definitely safer to drive.

Casil, your discoveries are always a delight. I suspect I get less of that here because getting into this valley required a certain amount of group effort - the mountains made it somewhat difficult. There are several old graveyards I haven't seen, though, one near Parma, I think. One in town that I've driven by, but haven't stopped in. I'd like to go back to Silver City at some point and get shots there - preferably when the high summer sun isn't glaring off pure white marble!