Hosmer Cemetery.
Hosmer began as a Canadian Pacific Railway company town. Coal mining started in 1908 and the Canadian Pacific Railway shut down production in 1914. At one time approximately one thousand two hundred people lived here. Now about a hundred people live here and there are few traces of what once existed.
The cemetery is long abandoned and partway up the mountain. A friend of mine and I tried to find it on June 24th. The GPS coordinates where it said it was were not were it was. We spent time tromping through the dense bush trying to find it. We flagged down a motorcyclist on a trail and asked him if hew knew where it was. He did and pointed us in the right direction. A bit of a walk and into a bit of an overgrown clearing and we were there. If you did not know where it was you would have an very hard time finding it. We had just missed finding it on our prior attempts.
This is a bit of an odd place. A couple of graves are close together, most are spread far apart. There are no rows and no pattern to the internments. It is so overgrown there are unmarked and unknown graves and some marked ones that I know we did not spot them. There is no sign anywhere marking the cemetery.
Long collapsed fence marking a grave. Did not see any marker.
You do a good service by publishing these old grave sites. Even if we just say their names out loud and say a prayer for them. Good work.
ReplyDeleteThere may not be anyone taking care of these graves, or even acknowledging their existence, but wouldn't we all rather end up in a place like this than say Forest Lawn in L.A.? Great pics.
ReplyDeleteI know I would not mind ending up in a place like this.
DeleteSo sad that it is abandoned, but also a peaceful place to rest.
ReplyDeleteIt is not going to help now, but may help others in future, but the Heritage Society does publish directions. I know they are still not perfect ...... https://www.fernieheritagecemetery.com/index.php?action=page_display&PageID=15
ReplyDeleteThank you for going up there - this was a good post!
I actually tried to use their directions. They were not much help. The place is overgrown and hard to find.
DeleteI missed mentioning that I got some of the information on this place from their page and also from the findagrave website.
DeleteInteresting hike. I too have visited old cemeteries in the USA, Europe, and Central American. A reminder that we will all end up there one day. A meditation indeed.
ReplyDeleteThere's something right and proper about Nature reclaiming an old cemetary.
ReplyDeleteI plan to be buried in a little cemetery in the Cypress Hills of Alberta...much more comfortable than a "big box" cemetery.
ReplyDeleteWow!!!
ReplyDeleteBurn me and scatter the ashes to the winds of America.
ReplyDelete