head stones on mindat

I took some pictures of head stones in the cemetery at Frisco, Utah. Since the cemetery was only for miners and their families, I thought I would upload them to Mindat. My wife insists that is morbid and that no one on Mindat would want to see them. I say it is part of the mining history of the area and that is shows how hard the life was at that time. By far the majority of the head stones are for kids under 2 years old. Most of them are deteriorating and will probably not survive in the harsh desert much longer. Once they are gone that history will be lost.

The dates on many of them are prior to 1900 and some of them go back to the 1860's .

Any thoughts ???

Rick
I know I am in my own little world, but everyone knows me here.

With apologies to your wife, Rick, I agree with you

I agree with you and Alfredo, it is important for all of us to save the history of mining. So please add them to Mindat.

The history should not be lost!

Yes, please add them. If enough photographs from diverse areas get added, these photos would be an educational resource as well as preserving some of the history of mining. Back here in the Eastern U.S. we occasionally have students wander through a cemetery to look at how tombstones of various rock types have fared over the years. Eventually they realize that marble tombstones are not the best choice for a temperate, humid climate such as ours -- many of the old ones are now illegible. Slate tombstones, meanwhile, when set on edge are prone to frost splitting unless the edges were carefully machined smooth. It's fascinating to see how various rock types have withstood the test of time, and with each tombstone we have the starting date of weathering. Another aspect of weathering, here in the Franklin, NJ area, is that some of the tombstones that were made of zinc have developed a coating of hydrozincite. Amazing to see these glowing eerily blue under SW ultraviolet light in the dead of night.

Rick,

This post inspires me.

There is absolutely nothing morbid about honoring dead miners. They made our lives possible with zero recognition.

Barely a mle from the Green River Gorge realgar localities is the Franklin Cemetary. Franklin was a bustling coal mining town at the turn fo the century near Black Diamond in South central King County Washington. Near Seattle. There is no trace left of Franklin except for that deteriorating little cemetary perched directly and precariously above the Green River Gorge.

Back in 2000 I had a girlfriend who was a photographer. Pre-digital era. I took her to every curious photo-op in that part of the county.

To her, nothing was worth film and processing. Including the proudest monument in the Franklin Cemetary. That would be OK except that the guy in the ground was a Duffy. Her mother's maiden name !! And her mother is a family history advocate.

There are so many strange thing in that little Appalachia part of Washington that it's hard to list them, but there is a haunted resort with a catwalk down into the gorge, a guy with an 8 foot long mailbox designed to look like the Beatle's Yellow Submarine, and a Cadillac graveyard not far from the Franklin graveyard.

I'm heading back down there and taking a photo of every headstone before they slide into the Green River Gorge.

Bart

Agree, don't see anything morbid about recording the history of life.

Bob



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2012 02:37AM by Bob Jackson.

Here are some I photographed at the Sâpânta cemetery in Maramures, Romania
-> [www.strahlen.org]
Cheers, Frank

Thanks, Frank, for posting these!
They are simply great.

I also agree completely with what others have said. I have commented several times on the interest in the history of collecting and mining, and this is in that realm. Preserving the history would be, in my opinion, a great and noble thing to do.

Hi all, in my opinion, Rick, you can post these images without problems. I love stonegraves and cemeteries and I'll see gladly your photos.

P.S: My wife agree with yours, she thinks I'm a little...barmy.

Better to be just than good (Kempis)

Rick,

I will agree with the historic aspect of the old mining cemeteries. When you wander around the Cripple Creek, Colorado cemetery, you notice the month/years when fire or disease ravaged the community.

There are many U.S. headstone pictures already on the web:
[www.usgwtombstones.org]

But you may want to limit your pics to those related to mining activity. This is not tombstonedat.org

By the way, here is a real old west epitaph:

"Here lies Lester Moore.
Four slugs
From a forty-four.
No Les
No More."

-Dean Allum



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2012 11:59PM by Dean Allum.

Frank,

Will you be posting these beautiful photos to Mindat??? Pleeaaase!

Chet

Would you object to me posting the photo of a mineral bearing the label of A. E. Foote (1846-1895)? Probably not. Would you object to posting a photo of a George English (1864-1944) specimen label? Probably not. So why would there be an objection to posting the photo of the headstone for a miner (insert lifespan here)?

I see no fundamental difference.

Very old Headstones in our area were noted, dating the original workings of the areas soapstone quarries (Montgomery Co., PA)
No other records of these workings remain.

History matters . . . headstones ARE history.

i.e., post away! :)


MRH

I agree that there is nothing morbid about it at all, I find graves and cemeteries to be very interesting places and in many cases here in Australia at least are the only link left to the pioneer gold diggers who settled so much of our country. We have a few graves here on our own land that predate the local cemetery (est 1861, digging started 1858 here), some find it creepy but I think the history and that link to the gold diggers of old is fantastic.

Post away I say!

Chester S. Lemanski, Jr. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Frank,
>
> Will you be posting these beautiful photos to
> Mindat??? Pleeaaase!
>
> Chet


Done
See [www.mindat.org]
Cheers, Frank

I might point out that gravestones themselves are interesting geologically and mineralogically. For instance see:


[www.cmnh.org]

.If you read down to the first line of the introduction:

"Geological observations in cemeteries have a long history.
Indeed, the naming of charnockite, a variety of granite,
is based on the tombstone of Job Charnock (d. 1693)."

And FYI, Job Charnock was the the founder of Calcutta, India and he is buried there.

Unfortunately for the preservations of such charming names, charnockite is often now just referred to as hypersthene grantite. See:

[en.wikipedia.org]

Don

Frank,

Thank you so much!! These are real addditions to the Mindat database.

Chet