New location for my blog on cemeteries and land use

For the latest in news and commentary on cemeteries and land use, please visit my new blog -- same name, new address:
Whistling Past The Graveyard

More on Chesapeake Bay

Among the links on this site is an article by the Washington Post on cemeteries threatened by rising water of the Chesapeake Bay. Here's another article on the same subject.

Thievery story reaches USA Today

Here's USA Today's take on the problem of cemetery looters.

Going 'green' in Atlanta?

A landowner wants to put a "green cemetery" on 17 acres he owns in the Atlanta area.

Private cemetery gets OK on Cape Cod, Mass.

Interesting little story here about a private cemetery to be created on someone's land. It got some opposition from a local official, but got the OK anyway. Pay close attention to the soil boring info ... they did their homework, it seems.

More on Arlington Cemetery

In May 2007, I mentioned a long feature story about Arlington National Cemetery - America's cemetery - that appeared in National Geographic. Here is a new story, from Arlington Connection, that details some of the same overcrowding problems of this national treasure. It's not getting any easier for the folks who run Arlington.

Dead and re-buried

As if cemeteries aren't filling up fast enough, in the Detroit area, people are digging up their relatives and moving them to the greener (can you say, "whiter"?) cemeteries.

Green burial in New Jersey

A funeral home in NJ offers green burial options.

Ga. residents angered by crematorium construction

Zoning laws don't forbid construction of a crematorium, so one is on its way in a Georgia town

Sculpture gardens and more ... the Art of Dying

Some artists in the Seattle area are turning dying, or, more correctly, cemeteries, into an art form - building sculpture gardens and other art works in cemeteries.
This is a terrific article.

Native plants in cemeteries

Among the overlooked factors in the care and maintenance of today's contemporary cemetery is the problem of keeping those lawns green and those plants healthy.

As any self-educated lawn doctor will tell you, it can take a lot of fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides and water to make these final resting places look like "Amen Corner." All that added stuff adds stress to your plants, and all it does in the end is make the cycle more vicious.

One way to combat these problems is to become "au naturel." It's a small, but important step toward returning our cemeteries to the places of natural beauty that they once were, back during the establishment of the rural cemetery movement of the 19th century. Back then, cemeteries were established outside the crowded city limits and designed to draw the public for parks and other recreational activities and to give them the chance to experience nature up close.

How times have changed.

Some folks in California have the right idea. At the Old City Cemetery in Sacramento (picture of poppies, above), the native plant society has established a native plant garden to demonstrate the effectiveness of such greenery in attracting pollinators and other beneficial creatures. The primary goal of the project is to demonstrate how home gardeners can utilize native plants, but another consequence - intended or unintended, we don't care - is to beautify a long-neglected cemetery.

Natives "know the language," so to speak; they are less prone to the cyclical climate changes that can hurt exotics and other non-natives introduced into cemeteries. And, in this day of concerns over water supplies, natives need less water to survive, because they are in their normal habitat.

Similar things are going on all over the country - as we'll attempt to point out here. Another quick find was the Mulkey Cemetery in Eugene, Oregon, which is among a growing number of cemeteries offering "green-burial" option, right down to the native plants that surround your loved one's final resting place.

Early Philadelphia cemetery

NPR has a nice, little feature story about a cemetery in Philadelphia's Fishtown section. It's most famous resident is an American Revolution hero.
While surfing the Web on this cemetery, I came across this article from the Philadelphia Weekly.

Another subject: Thieves target metal at cemeteries

And another story different from what we usually post, but another alarming trend: Thieves are stealing metal from cemeteries, anything from bronze mausoleum doors to metal joint-replacement parts. For real.

Where Cub fans go to die

Not usually the type of thing we put here at WPTG, but this is too good to resist. A cemetery in Chicago is building a replica of Wrigley Field's centerfield wall as Cub fans' final resting place.
Among the clever nicknames for it: "eternal season ticket."

More news from Conn., this time from preservationists

A nice story about a group in East Hartford that works to restore and preserve a historic cemetery.

Conn. town seeks cemetery site, committee members

The town government in Weston, Conn., is looking for a place to create a new cemetery. The prior board of selectmen paid $10,000 to conduct a study, and came up with potential locations, but no action has been taken, and now the government wants to start over with a new cemetery committee to look into the matter.
This story is quite comprehensive, detailing some of the land-use and geological problems with locating a cemetery.

New green cemetery in Pennsylvania

The United Methodist Church in Pennsylvania has taken its forested grounds and turned them into an eco-cemetery, where people can have their cremated remains buried in biodegradable urns, reports the Allentown Morning Call. According to church leaders, this is a perfect way to preserve the forests. The new place also gets a pretty good thumbs up from Mark Harris, author of "Grave Matters," which touts all-natural burials as the best way to depart this earth.

Another emerging trend: new cemeteries

And here is the story of an Arizona town that has decided to create a cemetery itself, instead of relying on big, old Tucson for its needs.

Pa. group tends to neglected cemetery

This old cemetery has not had a caretaker in 10 years, so a local group set out to fix things up in a Pennsylvania community. I know I'm missing tons of stories like this, but sadly, that's the case - there *are* tons of stories like this.

U.S. Sen Menendez backs cemetery measure

New Jersey U.S. Senator Robert Menendez has helped to address the costs of maintaining and creating cemeteries for U.S. Veterans. To quote from his constituency e-mail:

Grants for Veteran Cemeteries:
With the aging of the WWII generation, we
have moved into the beginning of the period of greatest need for funding of the
Grants for State Veteran Cemeteries, but funding levels have not kept up with
need. I have helped ensure adequate funding to address the costs of constructing
new cemeteries as well as the needs of existing State Veteran Cemeteries.
Veterans of WWII are the Greatest Generation, and we must honor them as such.
The care we put into Veterans' cemeteries should appropriately reflect our
gratitude for the tremendous service and sacrifice they have made for our
nation.

You can read his full e-newsletter here.

Book review from Washington Post

Here's a piece from the Washington Post on "The American Resting Place." The Post also has audio links to an interview with author Marilyn Yalom.

Atlanta cemetery, damaged by storm, reopens

We noted earlier that a historic Atlanta cemetery was damaged by the tornado in March. Here's an update. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that it is reopening. All the cleanup is not complete, but they've opened anyway.

Cemetery enters foreclosure controversy

Here's a home-finance advice article, talking about someone interested in buying a foreclosed home -- that happens to have a cemetery in its back yard. For some of us, it would be OK, but this potential buyer has concerns, and the author of this article seems to have a problem with it, too. Why else would they keep referring to such circumstances as a "defect"? Grrrr.

New book, touted by Newsweek

Here's a new book about cemeteries and graves in America, courtesy of Newsweek.

2005 article on land squeeze, but timely nonetheless

Here is a piece from the Mississippi Business Journal in October 2005, published after Hurricane Katrina, and it addresses some of the problems of getting re-established after such a devastating storm. But even though it's a couple of years old, the dilemma remains the same. Thanks to the folks at findarticles for keeping this around.

Plan for NJ town would impact cemetery

A plan to reroute Route 322 through a Gloucester County town purportedly would disturb the edge of a longtime cemetery, but despite that circumstance, the local governing body gave its thumbs up to the project.

O'Hare plan ... more planes means moving graves

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from a Chicago-area cemetery that would be removed -- lock, stock and barrel -- to make way for more runways at O'Hare International.

Cell tower plan

T-Mobile's plan to eradicate "dead zones" along the Mass. Turnpike has caused a stir, because they want to place the 40-foot tower in an old cemetery in Framingham. Here is a Boston Globe version of the story.

Endangered species threatens cemetery project

Everything was going well for the folks in one Massachusetts town. They had recognized the dilemma of their rapidly filling local cemetery. They voted to create a new one. And then, along came the Eastern box turtle. Or, actually, because not many of these turtles do come along anymore, the project could be faced with delay. Perhaps there is a way to turn this into a green, or natural, cemetery?

Sprawl threatens Missouri cemetery

Supporters of an old cemetery in Missouri that includes many slave remains is being threatened by expansion of the Kansas City airport.

Space crunch in Sydney, Australia

Government officials in Sydney think the city could run out of space to bury people by 2050 unless changes are made. The culprits? Rising land values and the squeeze of urban sprawl.

Georgia community planners OK natural cemetery

Here's a case where some folks got it right -- their focus is on land use, and their job was to OK a land use for a particular site, a natural cemetery.
Commissioner Jimmy Patton notes:

"Our job is to regulate land use - to decide if that particular piece of
property is appropriate for a cemetery. We are not a health department."

Atlanta probes cemetery in aftermath of tornado

In the wake of the March 14 tornado that plowed through Atlanta, archeologists and others are looking through the damaged ruins to see what secrets Oakland Cemetery might hold. Among the notables buried there are author Margaret Mitchell ("Gone With the Wind") and golfing legend Bobby Jones.
Notes Sara Sanders, a FEMA archeologist:

"There are 70,000 burials here. Not all of them are in coffins."

Philly landmark cemetery needs help

One of the local TV stations has a report on its Web site (and, presumably on air) about a famous cemetery from the early days of the "rural cemetery movement." Laurel Hill, in short, needs some TLC.

California town's grave situation

This is an old story, but worth posting here, just because of the sheer remarkability of it. This suburban San Francisco town is mostly a cemetery.

A "minor" intrusion on a cemetery

At first blush, it might be viewed as offensive that a minor league ballclub would erect a sign on a cemetery site, but given the growing cost to maintain them, maybe it's not such an affront.

Old news, but good news in Georgia

Officials in a Georgia town have now, via a zoning change, protected cemeteries from encroaching development.

Around the world: Germany, Australia

Some innovative ideas from our fellow Earth citizens in Germany (a cemetery "pyramid" and Australia (a natural cemetery).

Meanwhile, also in Minnesota, plans for a new vets cemetery

While older, private cemeteries fall into government hands, when no one else can do the job (see my previous post), Minnesota officials are working to put in a new, 60-acre veterans cemetery near a state park south of Duluth.

Cemetery care falls increasingly to cities

Here's a story, originally in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and reprinted by the Grand Fords Herald in North Dakoka. The reasons are the same as countless other cases: Cemetery boards can't or won't hold to their obligations; money gets tight ... whatever the reasons, the results are the same -- either the cemeteries fall into disrepair or the public (either private citizens or goverment entities) must take over their care.

Running out of room in Utah

A small town in Utah wants to establish a cemetery; currently, folks can be buried in the cemetery in the town next door, but it costs much more than if they could be buried in their own town. Not just any site will do, the mayor notes, because they need a low water table in order to bury their own.
Says Mayor Laurel Brady:

"I don't know why something wasn't acquired sooner. Lately people were
wishing we had. Cemeteries are something that don't come up (in city planning)."

Georgia thinks 'green' burial

Officials in Bibb County, Ga. are considering a plan to create a natural cemetery on a 25-acre site. There is only one other such cemetery in all of Georgia and only a handful total around the country.

From Web Urbanist

This came "across the transom," so to speak. A blurb from Web Urbanist notes that the Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, N.Y., is one of the seven great abandoned sites in the country. Just scroll down a bit from the top and you will find it. You also will find another link to the Forsaken Places Web site.

Maine cemetery struggles to stay open

Here's an interesting situation that has arisen out of the change in public sentiment from burial to cremation. A community in Maine is considering whether to take over the operation of two cemeteries, because their operators get so few burial options (as people choose cremation) that they cannot make ends meet. The townsfolk will decide in March whether to take control of the cemeteries.

New cemetery planned for Shreveport, LA

A developer says it is planning what would be the first new cemetery in that area in two decades!
The organization's rep noted: "We also kind of checked around with baby boomers in the Ellerbe Road area. We found out that not only did most of them not have burial plots, they haven't even thought of it."