Sunday, May 26, 2024

Wooden Grave Markers

Ever wonder why there are so many empty spaces in old cemeteries?

Michael Emery, who has spent two decades documenting historic cemeteries throughout southeastern and central Pennsylvania, has concluded that these seemingly empty spaces were once occupied by temporary wooden markers, most of which have rotted away long ago. While some of these were replaced by formal tombstones or markers of modest fieldstones, others were never replaced at all, leaving empty gaps among the oldest memorials in historic graveyards.

Click below for the story...


5 comments:

MR. Macabre said...

Sometimes that may be the only thing the family can afford.

Rot said...

Totally agree. It’s sad that wealth even affects the dead living a better life. Seems unfair that they are remembered after their passing and those with less wealth are not.

Otaku said...

When I lived in California, there was a graveyard a couple of blocks from my house. It had a lot of old wooden markers and I took lots of pictures to get design ideas for my haunt. I met the caretaker one day and we talked about the old markers, he said that when they fall over they try to contact the family but sometimes without success. He said that if I wanted them for my yard haunt,he would leave them under a tree for me. I managed to collect 6 of them to use in my graveyard. People would ask how I managed to get the markers to look so old, weathered, and authentic. I wasn't sure how to answer that.

Rot said...

Wow! You’d think you’d be haunted for life by spirits! ; )

Otaku said...

Every time we had an animatronic malfunction, my wife said that we were being haunted by the restless spirits in the graveyard.
I haven't had such issues since I moved here, but this will be the first year that I will be using animatronics. We'll see...