One for the genealogists
Share Halloween is fun. Between trick or treating, anticipating unique costumes (I once saw someone dressed as a flower pot), house decorations, long-suffering pets in cute getups and children double-whammied by excitement and sugar highs, what’s not to like? And while I don’t write about ghosts or vampires, this year will be a little different as […]
Mount Pleasant memories
Share Writers and artists have somehow always known cemeteries are a place of inspiration. Seattle-based writer Stacy Carlson, author of Among The Wonderful, shares her particular credo about Mount Pleasant. ——- There’s a blue-green house shaped like a barn on West Bothwell Street that’s half a block from a T-intersection. It’s a T because instead […]
Snapshots: Mysterious family crests
Share Below is an unfamiliar carving that looks very much like a Finnish family crest. It was found on a Woodmen of the World headstone dedicated to David Lunden, born 1875 in Finland. Lunden later emigrated to the US to find work in the Black Diamond coal mines. On November 6, 1910, an explosion rocked the Lawson Mine, […]
Decoding the kanji stones
Share In the September 24th posting on Weathering, vandalism & maintenance, I wrote about some cleaning options that could be useful for most cemeteries, with the exception of Auburn Pioneer. In this particular site, the lichen and moss add a unique Buddhist zen aesthetic to the delicate cement markers. Rather than destroy both the marker […]
Stones & Bones presentation schedule
The following dates and locations have been scheduled for Stones & Bones: Discovering secrets in King County’s oldest cemeteries. All events are free and open to the public. Date: October 16, 2009 Time: 11.00am – 1.00pm Location Bellevue Regional Library Date: October 18, 2009 Time: 3.00pm to 4.30pm Location: 4326 – 337th Pl SE, Fall City With: Fall City […]
Weathering, vandalism & maintenance: Part V
Share Weather, vandalism and maintenance are the three biggest challenges facing old Pacific Northwest cemeteries. Unlike the granite headstones that are seemingly impervious to practically anything except an earthquake, sandstone carvings do not endure rainy winter seasons very well. In many cases, intricate carvings are melting away while marble is only slightly better at handling industrious molds and […]
Carvings and symbols: Part IV
Share Names and dates are important facts for any researcher but on a headstone, the variety of carvings and symbols can build out a more complete story. Double-headed eagles… Knights in weathered armor… …olive branches and oak leaves, scallops and axes. All of these are mysterious symbols to visitors unfamiliar with the metaphors. During the late […]
The stones share a few secrets – Part III
Share Cemeteries attract all sorts of visitors, although some are more surprising than others. The same can be said about old tombstones. Just when you think you’ve seen everything, something new comes along. In King County, it’s common to see a nod to both the rustic pioneer and classic Victorian. (See The Secret Garden for a traditional English Victorian […]
Six cemeteries in the spotlight – Part II
Share Any cemetery enthusiast will readily agree that highlighting just a few cemeteries out of so many can be an almost impossible task. And while only six King County cemeteries could be chosen for the indepth Stones & Bones articles, several other fascinating places will be highlighted when symbols, inscriptions and unique stones are discussed. #1: Woodinville Mead […]
Discovering secrets in King County’s old cemeteries
Share Cemetery issues shot to the forefront of American consciousness when headlines broke the Burr Oaks scandal this past summer. Body dumping and plot re-sales for extra cash shocked locals and veteran police officials alike who were at a loss to fathom how all this could have happened without anyone noticing. More shocking was the […]