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Many times when
visiting an older cemetery or undertaking a clean up and
restoration project you will find numerous rocks located
within that cemetery. While these rocks may look to be
at first glance just randomly scattered rocks, in
reality they often are the only marker or indication
that this is in fact the location of a grave. A general
rule to follow is that you should never remove a rock
from a cemetery.
The use of rocks as grave
markers can be for any number of reasons. Some of these
include:
- Many people could
not afford to purchase a carved gravestone. Often
times in these cases "field stones" or other such
rocks were used in place of a carved marker. During
the depression years there was no money to purchase
gravestones and it seems over the years no one has
stepped up to replace the stones. Still more
cemeteries will often have rows of graves with
"field stone" markers. Many times graves were marked
by non-native rocks (all others having been removed
from the immediate vicinity) so that others would
know a grave existed. Often times a larger rock was
placed at the head of the grave and a smaller one at
the foot. Later, if a traditional tombstone was
placed, the rock was removed at the time the marker
was erected. Some have long flat rocks placed in the
ground in a perpendicular fashion to resemble the
regular gravestones but some are marked with just a
rock.
- Local Customs -
While the grave itself may or may not have been
marked by a rock, with many of the older burial
sites it was a custom to outline the grave with a
border of rocks. This custom may have arisen from
local customs of using field rocks to outline
fields, or build cairns for property corner
markers.
- Lack of a local
stone mason at the time.
In some cases there rocks have been removed by workers
in order to make mowing easier. All too often we are
discovering that a Boy Scout troop or a 4-H group did a
community service project and removed all the "loose"
rocks from the cemeteries. It is also possible if you
find a pile of rocks in the area of a neglected or
abused cemetery that someone before you removed them
from graves, and piled them where you are finding them.
In the very old cemeteries in the desert west, a wooden
cross was placed at the head of the grave and the grave
outlined in small rocks. It didn't take long for the
sand to cover the small rocks and for the wooden cross
to deteriorate. So, if anyone discovers a line of small
rocks in or under the sand, look for the grave!
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