A few years ago, we searched out a geocache that turned out to be in an old cemetery... hidden in the woods, surrounded by a rustic iron fence, nearly overrun by trees. But someone made an effort to keep this place accessible, to make sure those buried there wouldn't be forgotten.
I never forgot that small place, carved out of the woods. And now I seek out those places... spend time reading the stones, thinking about the people who lived in this community, wondering what their lives were like. And I take photos.
Last fall we found a pioneer cemetery in the Horse Heaven Hills, again because of a geocache. It's high in the hills, surrounded by fields of winter wheat, exposed to the constant winds. I can't remember ever driving past this place when we lived here, but it's beautiful up in these hills... high and unprotected and windswept, surrounded by sky. Only a few people are buried here, and the local farmers and ranchers maintain it and care about it.
The location of that cemetery we found all those years ago is lost to me now. But one day, I'll drive the dirt roads along US-2 and search for it again. And I will hope that this small cemetery survived, surrounded by its iron fence, protected forever.
Yes, I like stumbling across these old cemeteries. It's like finding a piece of history.
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