Graveyards

Today, my hubby and I got our fill of graveyards, as a couple of the graveyards were very unexpected. We traveled from Mesa, AZ to Tombstone, AZ to spend a few days touring the area and visiting with my cousin and her husband.  I had planned to go to Tombstone's Boot Hill Graveyard full of dead people from the 1880's, so here are some interesting facts about that graveyard.  There were a large number of markers listing the person as "unknown."  In the 1880's, Tombstone had a population of over 5,000 people and 110 saloons and gambling places.  Many times a cowboy or miner would end up on the wrong end of a gunfight and died.  Often, they had never told anyone their name (or they had a nickname like Stinging Lizard) and had no identification on them, not even letters from loved ones back home in the East.  So the undertaker would lay their body on a slab in front of the bar or establishment where killed, awaiting someone to identify them.  Of course, this laying on the slab was only for one day and if no one identified the poor soul, he was buried with a marker listing him as Unknown. 

There was even a "relative" of my hubby's ... just joking....that was hanged!

I know you're not supposed to smile or laugh in a graveyard, but couldn't help it when viewing this marker.

Now, the other graveyards, I had never heard of before.  North of Tucson off Interstate 10 is Pinal County Air Park which had over 110 larger airplanes that have used up their lives.  Some were being taken apart for salvageable parts.  We could not get really close, but here's a photo of a row of airplanes with their Delta graveyard markers all in a row.

The other graveyard was south of Tucson off Interstate 10 and it involved 292 locomotive trains that were lined up on an abandoned section of railway ties.  This graveyard is due to a significant decrease in railway usage.  This photo was taken from the a car going 75 miles/hour, but I hope you get the idea.

When today began, I never would have guessed that my next blog would be about graveyards, but some days I need to be reminded that all lives, human and mechanical, come to an end.