Mission San Fernando Rey
Current mood: animated

I have visited this Mission a few times over the years, Two of my Cousins were married there in fact but yesterday was the first funeral I ever attended there. The Altarpiece is wonderful and of course I had my camera with me as usual. So here are some pics of the Altarpiece and a little history on the Mission.

Mission San Fernando Rey de España was founded on "The Feast of the Birth of Mary" (September 8), 1797. The settlement is located on the former Encino Rancho in the Mission Hills community of northern Los Angeles, near the site of the first gold discovery in Alta California.
Mission San Fernando Rey de España was founded on September 8, 1797 by Father Fermín Lasuén, making it the fourth mission site he had established in as many months. The prime location the padre selected, located along the principal highway leading to the Pueblo de Los Angeles, had been occupied by Francisco Reyes (then Los Angeles' mayor). However, after brief negotiations construction of the first buildings was soon underway (Mission records list Reyes as godfather to the first infant baptized at San Fernando).


In 1845, Governor Pío Pico declared the Mission buildings for sale and, in 1846, made Mission San Fernando Rey de España his headquarters. The Mission was utilized in a number of ways during the late 1800s: it was a station for the Butterfield Stage Lines; it served as a warehouse for the Porter Land and Water Company; and in 1896, the quadrangle was used as a hog farm. San Fernando's church became a working church again in 1923 when the Oblate priests arrived. Many attempts were made to restore the old Mission from the early 1900s, but it was not until the Hearst Foundation gave a large gift of money in the 1940s, that the Mission was finally restored. In 1971, a large earthquake damaged the church, which had to be completely rebuilt.(I remember that quake and its large aftershock on March 31st of that same year) The repairs were completed in 1974. It continues to be very well cared for and is still used as a chapel-of-ease. In 2003 comedian Bob Hope was interred in the Bob Hope Memorial Gardens.

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A few favorites
Current mood: animated

A few of my favorite Cemetery photos. It is not easy to pick favorites since I have so many, but here are some. I took these in the last year. I made them into a comment but posted them here as I have been advised that there are some people who are trying to take credit for the photos- which were all taken by me. Enjoy my pictures but take your own if you want credit! Hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I did taking them. More to come in my photos as soon as I find time to post them. Enjoy!

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Cemetery Icons
Current mood: creative

These close ups of hands (one of my favorite symbols) and Wheat with Sickle are from Arroyo Grande Cemetery here in California.

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Evicting God
Current mood: amused

I am reasonably sure that I am not the only person who thinks this looks like the Zig Zag man!
We came upon a rather scary (in a disturbing way) looking 'colony' for lack of a better word, of houses all surrounded by chain link fence with this little 'church' in the middle of it. It was down a dusty dirt side road up in San Luis Obispo county. There were additional signs quoting scripture and such hanging on the fence, but we managed to snap this photo of the Zig Zag Jesus.
On the door is an eviction notice! Wow- just goes to show you- no one is safe from this housing crisis, no one I say!

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Mid Summer and St Johns Eve
Current mood: adventurous

Midsummer may simply refer to the period of time centered upon the summer solstice, but more often refers to specific European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice, or that take place on the 24th of June and the preceding evening. European midsummer-related holidays, traditions, and celebrations are pre-Christian in origin and have been superficially Christianised as celebrations of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist as "Saint John's Eve" festivals. They are particularly important in Northern Europe - Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden - but are found also in Ireland, parts of Britain (Cornwall especially), France, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain, other parts of Europe, and elsewhere - such as Canada, the United States, Puerto Rico, and even in the Southern Hemisphere (Brazil), where this imported European celebration would be more appropriately called Midwinter.


Midsummer is also sometimes referred to by neo-pagans and others as Litha, stemming from Bede's De temporum ratione in which he gave the Anglo-Saxon names for the months roughly corresponding to June and July as "se Ærra Liþa" and "se Æfterra Liþa" (the "early Litha month" and the "later Litha month") with an intercalary month of "Liþa" appearing after se Æfterra Liþa on leap years. The fire festival or Lith- Summer solstice is a tradition for many pagans.


Solstitial celebrations still centre upon 24 June, which is no longer the longest day of the year. The difference between the Julian calendar year (365.2500 days) and the tropical year (365.2422 days) moved the day associated with the actual astronomical solstice forward approximately three days every four centuries, until Pope Gregory XIII changed the calendar bringing the solstice to around 21 June. In the Gregorian calendar, the solstice does shift, but in the long term it moves only about one day in 3000 years.



In the 7th century, Saint Eligius (died 659/60) warned the recently-Christianized inhabitants of Flanders against these pagan solstitial celebrations.

According to the Vita by his companion Ouen, he would say:
"No Christian on the feast of Saint John or the solemnity of any other saint performs solestitia [summer solstice rites] or dancing or leaping or diabolical chants.

"
Indeed, as Saint Eligius demonstrates, midsummer has been Christianized as the nativity feast of Saint John the Baptist: notably, unlike all other saints' days, this feast is celebrated on his birthday and not on the day of his martyrdom, which is separately observed as the "Decollation of John the Baptist" on 29 August. That more conventional day of Saint John the Baptist is not marked by Christian churches with the emphasis one might otherwise expect of such an important saint.


As for his solsticial birthday, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the Nativity of John the Baptist (June 24) as a Solemnity, which is the highest degree a liturgical feast can have. It is even one of the few saint's feasts that is celebrated even when it falls on a Sunday; typically the feast of a saint is superseded when it falls on a Sunday. There is hardly any way that the feast of St John the Baptist could be given more emphasis in the liturgical calendar.


The celebration of Midsummer's Eve was from ancient times linked to the summer solstice. People believed that mid-summer plants had miraculous and healing powers and they therefore picked them on this night. Bonfires were lit to protect against evil spirits which were believed to roam freely when the sun was turning southwards again. In later years, witches were also thought to be on their way to meetings with other evil powers.


In Sweden Mid-summer celebration originates from the time before Christianity; it was celebrated as a sacrifice time in the sign of the fertility.


The solstice itself has remained a special moment of the annual cycle of the year since Neolithic times[citation needed]. The concentration of the observance is not on the day as we reckon it, commencing at midnight or at dawn, but the pre-Christian beginning of the day, which falls on the previous eve. In Sweden, Finland and Estonia, Midsummer's Eve is considered the greatest festival of the year, comparable only with Walpurgis Night, Christmas Eve, and New Year's Eve.



The evening of June 23, St. John's Eve, is the eve of celebration before the Feast Day of St. John the Baptist. The Gospel of Luke (Luke 1:36, 56-57) states that John was born about six months before Jesus, therefore the feast of John the Baptist falls on June 24, six months before Christmas. This feast day is one of the very few saint's days to mark the anniversary of the birth, rather than the death, of its namesake.



The Feast of St. John coincides with the June solstice also referred to as Midsummers. The Christian holy day is fixed at June 24, but, in the old way, festivities are celebrated the night before, on St. John's Eve.



St. John's Eve (or Oiche Fheile Eoghain (Bonfire Night)) is celebrated in many parts of rural Ireland with the lighting of bonfires. This ancient custom has its roots in pre-Christian Irish society when the Celts honoured the Goddess Áine, the Celtic equivalent of Venus and Aphrodite. She was the Goddess Queen of Munster and Christianised rituals in her honour (as Naomh Áine) took place until the nineteenth century on Knockainy, (Cnoc Áine - the Hill of Áine) in County Limerick.




During the festival, people would say prayers, asking for God's blessing upon their crops. They would also take ashes from the fire, and spread them over their land as a blessing for protection for their crops. It was also common to have music, singing, dancing, and games during the festival. The fire was used for destroying small objects of piety (rosary beads, statues, ect.) without disrespecting God. It was also common for people to jump through the flames of the bonfire for good luck.


Historically, this date has been venerated in the practice of Voodoo. The famous Voodoo priestess Marie Laveau was said to have held ceremonies involving Voodoo ritual on the Bayou St. John in New Orleans, commemorating St. John's Eve. Modern day practitioners of Voodoo have kept the tradition alive.





Tomb of Marie Laveau

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Turkey Vultures
Current mood: blissful

This morning as my husband and I were heading out, we saw about 10 large birds- turkey vultures- circling in the air over what appeared to be the next main street over. We decided to go see what they were circling over, but once we had turned the corner some 30 feet up they were gone!
So we continued on our way. We had gone only a block up when I spotted this scene in a tree hanging over the street. They were all roosting in some sycamore trees. At first it was just one bird sitting with his wings open, then 3 of them did it. They just sat there like this for several minutes. They looked like Thunderbirds. It was really a wonderful sight!

Here is more information on Turkey Vultures

he Turkey Vulture, Cathartes aura, also known in North America as the Turkey Buzzard (or just "buzzard"), is a bird found throughout most of the Americas. One of three species in the genus Cathartes, in the family Cathartidae, it is the most widespread of the New World vultures, ranging from southern Canada to the southernmost tip of South America. It inhabits a variety of open and semi-open areas, including subtropical forests, shrublands, pastures, and deserts. With a wingspan of 173–183 cm (68–72 in) and an average weight of 1.4 kg (3.1 lb), the Turkey Vulture is a large bird. It has dark brown to black plumage; a featherless, purplish-red head and neck; and a short, hooked, ivory-colored beak.
The Turkey Vulture is a scavenger and feeds almost exclusively on carrion. It finds its meals using its sense of smell, flying low enough to detect the gases produced by the beginnings of the process of decay in dead animals. In flight, it uses thermals to move through the air, flapping its wings infrequently. It roosts in large community groups. Lacking a syrinx—the vocal organ of birds—its only vocalizations are grunts or low hisses. It nests in caves, hollow trees, or thickets, each year generally raising two chicks, which it feeds by regurgitation. It has very few natural predators. In the United States of America, the vulture receives legal protection under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

The Turkey Vulture received its common name from the resemblance of the adult's bald red head and its dark plumage to that of the male Wild Turkey, while the name "vulture" is derived from the Latin word vulturus, meaning "tearer," and is a reference to its feeding habits. The word buzzard is used by North Americans to refer to this raptor, yet in the Old World this word refers to members of the genus Buteo. The generic term Cathartes means "purifier" and is the Latinized form from the Greek kathartēs/καθαρτης. The species name, aura, is Latinized from the Native Mexican word for the bird, auroura. The Turkey Vulture was first formally described by Linnaeus as Vultur aura in his Systema Naturae in 1758, and characterised as V. fuscogriseus, remigibus nigris, rostro albo ("brown-gray vulture, with black wings and a white beak"). It is a member of the family Cathartidae, along with the other six species of New World vultures, and included in the genus Cathartes, along with the Greater Yellow-headed Vulture and the Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture.
The exact taxonomic placement of the Turkey Vulture and the remaining six species of New World Vultures remains unclear. Though both are similar in appearance and have similar ecological roles, the New World and Old World Vultures evolved from different ancestors in different parts of the world. Just how different the two are is currently under debate, with some earlier authorities suggesting that the New World vultures are more closely related to storks. More recent authorities maintain their overall position in the order Falconiformes along with the Old World Vultures or place them in their own order, Cathartiformes. The South American Classification Committee has removed the New World Vultures from Ciconiiformes and instead placed them in Incertae sedis, but notes that a move to Falconiformes or Cathartiformes is possible.

The Turkey Vulture is gregarious and roosts in large community groups, breaking away to forage independently during the day. Several hundred vultures may roost communally in groups which sometimes even include Black Vultures. It roosts on dead, leafless trees; though it nests in caves, it does not enter them except during the breeding season. The Turkey Vulture lowers its night-time body temperature by about 6° Celsius (11°F) to 34° Celsius (93°F), becoming slightly hypothermic.
This vulture is often seen standing in a spread-winged stance. The stance is believed to serve multiple functions: drying the wings, warming the body, and baking off bacteria. It is practiced more often following damp or rainy nights. This same behavior is displayed by other New World vultures, by Old World vultures, and by storks. Like storks, the Turkey Vulture often defecates on its own legs, using the evaporation of the water in the feces and/or urine to cool itself, a process known as urohydrosis.It cools the blood vessels in the unfeathered tarsi and feet, and causes white uric acid to streak the legs.
The Turkey Vulture has few natural predators. Its primary form of defense is regurgitating semi-digested meat, a foul-smelling substance which deters most creatures intent on raiding a vulture nest. It will also sting if the predator is close enough to get the vomit in its face or eyes. In some cases, the vulture must rid its crop of a heavy, undigested meal in order to take flight to flee from a potential predator.
The Turkey Vulture is awkward on the ground with an ungainly, hopping walk. It requires a great deal of effort to take flight, flapping its wings while pushing off the ground and hopping with its feet. While soaring, the Turkey Vultures holds its wings in a shallow V-shape and often tips from side to side, frequently causing the gray flight feathers to appear silvery as they catch the light. The flight of the Turkey Vulture is an example of static soaring flight, in which it flaps its wings very infrequently, and takes advantage of rising thermals to stay soaring.

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Sinagua Indian Pictographs
Current mood: adventurous

On our trip to Arizona, Jeff and I took a 4 hour off roadin 'Pink Jeep 'tour. Part of the tour included a stop and a hike up to some ancient Sinagua indian ruins. There were many Pictographs- really cool stuff! But one in particular was interesting in that it speaks to an ancient event that was recorded in China as well. Archaeologists have interpreted them to be a record made of an event that occured on July 4th 1054. If you look carefully you will see the Pictograph includes two circles, one atop of the other. These represent two suns. Below is the information that I was able to find on that event. Following that some information on the Sinagua indians.

Supernova 1054 - Creation of the Crab Nebula

On July 4, 1054 A.D., Chinese astronomers noted a "guest star" in the constellation Taurus; Simon Mitton lists 5 independent preserved Far-East records of this event (one of 75 authentic guest stars - novae and supernovae, excluding comets - systematically recorded by Chinese astronomers between 532 B.C. and 1064 A.D., according to Simon Mitton). This star became about 4 times brighter than Venus in its brightest light, or about mag -6, and was visible in daylight for 23 days.
Some older sources had speculated that this supernova might have been as bright as the Full Moon (or mag -12). The reason for this assumption was probably the intention to fit its 23-day visibility with older model lightcurves.

It was probably also recorded by Anasazi Indian artists (in present-day Arizona and New Mexico)
First observed in 1731 by John Bevis, the nebula was independently rediscovered in 1758 by Charles Messier as he was observing a bright comet. Messier catalogued it as the first entry in his catalogue of comet-like objects. The Earl of Rosse observed the nebula at Birr Castle in the 1840s, and referred to the object as the Crab Nebula because a drawing he made of it looked like a crab.
In the early 20th century, the analysis of early photographs of the nebula taken several years apart revealed that it was expanding. Tracing the expansion back revealed that the nebula must have become visible on Earth about 900 years ago. Historical records revealed that a new star bright enough to be seen in the daytime had been recorded in the same part of the sky by Chinese and Arab astronomers in 1054 Given its great distance, the daytime "guest star" observed by the Chinese and Arabs could only have been a supernova—a massive, exploding star, having exhausted its supply of energy from nuclear fusion and collapsed in on itself.
Recent analyses of historical records have found that the supernova that created the Crab Nebula probably occurred in April or early May, rising to its maximum brightness of between apparent magnitude −7 and −4.5 (brighter than everything in the night sky except the Moon) by July. The supernova was visible to the naked eye for about two years after its first observation. Thanks to the recorded observations of Far Eastern and Middle Eastern astronomers of 1054, Crab Nebula became the first astronomical object recognized as being connected to a supernova explosion.




Sedona, AZ - If you move to Northern Arizona or just come to enjoy a vacation, you will certainly hear about the ancient culture known as the "Sinagua." Who were they? When did they live? Why did they disappear?

The first known settlements by Sinagua people go back to 500 A.D. No one knows why they abandoned their settlements about 100 years before the first Spanish explorers came to the region.

The Sinagua—also called "Western Anasazi"—populated the area that spreads from what today is known as Flagstaff to the Verde River Valley between 500-1300 A.D.

The actual language that the Sinagua spoke is unknown and so we don't what they called themselves. In any case, the Sinagua are assumed to be the ancestors of the present day Hopi nation.

So how did they get a Spanish name such as "Sinagua?"

The name "sinagua" is compounded by two Spanish words: "sin" which means "without" and "agua" with means "water." In the late 1920s archaeologist Harold Colton took the term from a chronicle in which it was recorded that Spanish explorers called the highlands around Sunset Crater "Sierra Sin Agua" (Highlands Without Water).

Colton also differentiated two Sinagua groups. One group was identified as the Northern Sinagua in Flagstaff which comprised Walnut Canyon National Monument, Wupatki National Monument, and Elden Pueblo. The other group was the Southern Sinagua who were located in the Verde Valley where Montezuma's Castle, Montezuma's Well, Tuzigoot National Monument, Palatki Archaeological Site and the V-Bar-V Petroglyph Site are located. All these sites are open to the public today for their appreciation and enjoyment.


Sinagua Ruins

The area in which the Northern Sinagua settled was a high broad plateau that over a period of two million years had repeatedly been a site of volcanic activity. According to geologic studies, earthquakes were often felt and a massive volcanic eruption occurred in 1064. This violent eruption created a new cinder cone one thousand feet high now called Sunset Crater. This eruption is considered a key event in the history and evolution of the Sinagua people.

That is why the Sinagua culture is typically divided into two major periods: the Pre-eruptive that goes more or less from 500 to 1064 A.D.; and the Post-eruptive from 1065 to the late 1300s or early 1400s. One of the fascinations with this ancient culture is its ability to adapt to a constantly changing environment.

During the Pre-eruptive period, the Sinagua built pit house structures of logs, sticks and mud, partially underground. They raised crops, hunted game and gathered seeds and nuts which supplied their diet. After the eruption of Sunset Crater, radical landscape and climate changes altered their lives. They were forced to move from their previous settlements and built new homes, particularly along washes, to resume their life. They also constructed more elaborate masonry structures and took advantage of large natural boulders and ledges.

During this Post-eruptive period there were significant population shifts among the Sinagua and neighboring unrelated Indian cultures. This mobilization of different groups brought them into contact, increasing the trade of goods and the exchange of ideas.

Artifacts such as pottery and jewelry provide evidence of this cultural exchange with groups such as the Anasazi in the north, the Cohonino in the west, and the Hohokam in the south. Viewed through our contemporary eyes, we can say that the Sinagua were perhaps one of the most "cosmopolitan" groups of the Southwest. Intermarriage with other cultures was widely practiced, and both men and women married people from other groups.

Archaeologists and anthropologists have been able to describe some of the Sinagua rituals and ceremonies through the study of their remnant artifacts, petroglyphs, and comparative studies with other indigenous groups, especially with Hopi Indians. One interesting aspect of Sinagua rituals is that they are closely related to the flora and fauna of the areas they inhabited. For instance, they learned the properties of many wild desert plants for their medicinal and practical use. Among the most useful ones was the yucca plant. The stems and branches were used for fiber; the flowers and fruits for food, and from the roots they made soap.

The Sinagua also practiced well-organized communal hunting ceremonies for different purposes. Interestingly, behind the ceremonial communal hunting led chiefly by men, they worshiped a goddess, Tihkuyiwugti, the mother of the antelope deer, mountain sheep and rabbits.

Another of the mysteries surrounding the Sinagua is related to domesticated agricultural practices. Some recent research favors the idea that immigration of already agricultural people from as far as Mesoamerica introduced maize, beans and squash into the Southwest cultures, and even tobacco and cotton.

In their late period, the Sinagua also excelled in architectural projects. For example they built efficient irrigation ditches to maintain their crops. Today a visitor can admire some irrigation ditches in the area of Montezuma's Castle.

What is most striking is the Sinagua's ability to adapt to a harsh environment and mix freely with other cultures. They tamed nature around them without destroying it, and in a peaceful and gentle manner they took complete advantage of their environment from the rocks and boulders, to water sources, to the flora and fauna.

Perhaps their peaceful life style and harmonious interaction with the environment and other cultures can serve as a model for today.

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Kachina
Current mood: adventurous

This wonderful guy is the latest addition to my collection of curios from all over. He is a 'clown' Kachina. I first saw the 'clown' at a Grand Canyon shop while looking at all the wonderful Kachinas for sale there, and decided I had to have one. So I shopped several stores from the Grand Canyon to Sedona, but I found this guy in Williams Az where we were staying.
Here is more information about him and Kachinas in general. The Clown (Koshare) Summer Clown, is known by many other names, including Kaisale (Winter Clown), Tsuku (Second and Third Mesa), Koyaala, and Hano (First Mesa).
The Clown has a complex ceremonial role, giving wisdom and advice as well as poking fun at unacceptable behavior. The Clown is said to be a glutton, always overdoing it whether he is making fun of the dancers, trying to get the children to behave during ceremonies, or commenting on Hopi behavior. They are generally amusing and do things that no Hopi or anyone else would want to be caught doing. They are often depicted with a watermelon. Koshari, Koyala, Hano, or Tewa are the names of a clown that is often seen on the Hopi Mesas. Clown Kachinas provide amusement during Kachina ceremonies. Often shown with watermelons, they behave in the usual manner of pueblo clowns, engaging in loud and boisterous conversation, immoderate actions, and gluttony. They are often drummers for dances.

In the Hopi tradition, the Sacred Clown Kachina frequently disrupts and makes a holy mess out of some of the most vital and fundamental rituals. The clown satirizes Hopi life by acting out and exaggerating improper behavior. Many times the actions of the clowns are meant to portray a lesson on behavior apparent in a tribal member. Their purpose is to show how overdoing anything is bad not only for the individual but for the people as a whole as well.

Koshari plays tricks, acts out absurd pantomimes, or cleverly mimics spectators. Like the more serious Kachinas, but in a humorous way, the clown helps maintain community harmony by reminding the people of acceptable standards of behavior within the Hopi community.

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Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Current mood: accomplished

Today my husband and I took a few hours to visit one of my favorite haunts the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. I have spent many hours at this cemetery over the years and have taken many photos of the beautiful monuments as well. (Check out a few of the photos I took today in my Cemetery Visits and Doors, Gates-etc albums)

One of the main reasons that I wanted to visit this cemetery today was to test drive my new camera, a birthday present from my husband. He has seen me take an interest in trying to get certain types of photos which our basic digital just cant take. So now I have a camera with all sorts of features that I dont know how to use yet- but I am learning!-anyway so I begin the day by taking a photo of a wonderfully beautiful statue that can be found somewhat close to the gate. I tend to take my time lining up the shot making sure there aren't weird shadows and stuff. I had no sooner taken the picture than the security guard comes up to us and tells us that we can only take pictures of 'celebrities', and specifically those named on the map (which they had not given us upon entering- but I know the map they mean because I have one someplace). The grounds and monuments it seems are 'private property'.
I should mention further that among the changes on this visit was the fact that upon entering you have to actually sign yourself in including your cars license plate number, number of persons in the car and drivers name. They also now have signs posted that say "Private property closed to the public" (even though the public can go in) and signs saying that you can be removed from the grounds at any time. I can go along with all that because they might have encountered problems with folks 'hanging out' all day there or vandalism.

This cemetery is certainly private property as it is a privately owned business as many are. Its not a City (public) cemetery on public land. And because they are private this cemetery also hosts Cemetery Screenings - movies shown on the side wall of a mausoleum to crowds gathered on the lawn near the Fairbanks crypt, Shakespeare plays in the cemetery too (there is an event charge as well as a parking fee), and the wonderful Day of the Dead event which features Altars, Music, Food and Shopping all within the cemetery.
This beautiful place is a major tourist attraction and even has its own busy website on which they encourage public visitors. Given all of this, I was surprised that they have suddenly become so structured toward the visiting public. We aren't to photograph the beautiful stones here all of a sudden?- well unless the person was a celebrity and then its OK, well its OK IF they are on the list. Why? Are they going to come out with their own book about the cemetery featuring photos shortly? Perhaps they have received complaints from relatives of the interred? I understand there many be a certain sensitivity here, but a super wonderous monument while it does honor to the dead, it is also meant for the living to see and appreciate. It says this is who I was, what I did and where I am from. An ostentatios funeral or monument speaks to the living not the dead in my opinion. Given the activities that this 'private' business hosts within their walls, why the sudden concern with photography?

Sorry but the features and beauty of this park are too special NOT to be captured the way I want to see them. (check out my collection of Crypt doors) So avoiding the security golf cart patrol by staying off the roads and walking on the grass between the stones, we managed to snap some beautiful images- some of which I have shared in my pics albums. Hope you enjoy. Oh and here is one of the 'allowed' pictures

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Chicago City Cemetery~Lincoln Park
Current mood: inquisitive

Here is a cool article from the Chicago Reader. My Husband and my Dad are both from there- and this is about Cemeteries- so of course its of interest to me.







A Conservatory, a Zoo, and 12,000 Corpses
An artist digs for the truth about Lincoln Park and the Chicago City Cemetery.


By Robert Loerzel

Pamela Bannos

Kathy Richland
May 15, 2008
One day in the 1970s, when Pamela Bannos was a teenager, she was riding in the back of her father's car as he turned off Lake Shore Drive onto LaSalle Street. Looking out the window, she noticed an old stone structure standing in Lincoln Park. Surrounded by a chain-link fence and a wall of weeds, it looked like it might be a tomb. The word couch was just visible on its crest. What is that? she wondered.

And if it is a tomb, what's it doing in the park?
It was in fact a tomb, and as she would later learn, the park had once been a cemetery. On a winter night about a year and a half ago, Bannos—now an artist and a senior lecturer in photography at Northwestern University—drove down the same stretch of LaSalle. Once again the Couch mausoleum caught her eye. But the Park District had cleaned it up in 1999 and now it looked beautiful, all lit up on the snowy ground behind the Chicago Historical Society. She started wondering again what it was doing there.


Hidden Truths: The Chicago City Cemetery & Lincoln Park
Thu 5/22-Fri 11/21, Lincoln Park near North and Dearborn, hiddentruths. northwestern. edu.



Not long after that she noticed that the Chicago Tribune had made its entire archives, dating back to 1852, searchable online. First, like anyone discovering a new search engine, she typed in her own name. And then she ran a search for "couch tomb.

"
Numerous articles popped up—and numerous explanations for why the grand tomb of millionaire hotelier Ira Couch had been left behind when the Chicago City Cemetery was transformed into Lincoln Park. Some reported that the Couch family had fought against it being moved. One speculated that political clout was involved. Another made a vague reference to an Illinois Supreme Court case. Other reporters wrote that it had simply been too heavy.


Recent features


Intrigued by the way the story seemed to change each time it was told, Bannos began searching for articles about the cemetery itself. It didn't take her long to notice something else that was strange. Although history books suggest all the graves were moved out in the 1860s, bones have turned up since then, both in Lincoln Park and in an adjacent area where the Catholic cemetery was located. The question of what actually happened to the bodies became an obsession for Bannos, who's explored it in a multimedia art project called Hidden Truths, opening this week in the park.


"I feel like I've given up my life to this project," says Bannos, now 48. "I've been working for 16 hours a day on this for the last year.

"
This week, with permission from the Park District, Bannos will place six signs in Lincoln Park, each telling a part of the cemetery's forgotten history. Made with $10,000 in grant money from Northwestern, they'll stay up until November 21.
Bannos is also launching a Web site, hiddentruths. northwestern. edu, with hundreds of documents, articles, maps, and pictures—her favorite being an 1852 watercolor of a picket fence by the man who bid successfully on a contract to build a mile-long fence around the cemetery. Bannos plans to write a book about her findings as well.


While the project may sound more like historical research than art, she says, "what an artist does is show you something in a new way. . . . There's always something more than what meets the eye.

"
Russell Lewis, chief historian at the Chicago History Museum (formerly the Historical Society), says Bannos's new project is the most thorough exploration of the cemetery's history he has seen. "I don't know that anybody else has done the work that she has done," he says. "She found some very impressive stuff.

"
"It's really fascinating," says Julia Bach rach, the Park District's historian. "There's never really been a reason for me to go into the early history. She was focusing on the cemetery. I've always focused on the parks.

"
The story Bannos pieced together begins in 1843, when Chicago established the City Cemetery northeast of Clark and North. The grounds eventually extended north, approximately to Armitage. The poor were buried in a potter's field, located where baseball diamonds are now. In 1859 John Rauch, a prominent Chicago physician who would later become the city's sanitary superintendent and president of the Illinois State Board of Health, began calling for the cemetery to be closed. He feared that corpses were oozing disease into Lake Michigan and contaminating the air.


City officials set aside 60 acres north of the cemetery as a park in 1860, naming it for President Lincoln after he was slain five years later. In 1864 an ordinance instructed the city to end burials in the City Cemetery except in lots it had already sold, and to turn the cemetery's north end into parkland as well. But the burials went on. During the Civil War almost 4,000 Confederate soldiers who died as prisoners at Camp Douglas on the south side were buried in the City Cemetery, including 1,107 in the first eight months of 1865. That September the Common Council passed a resolution insisting that its 1864 ordinance be followed, and the following April it approved an ordinance ending burials completely. (Some families were already moving bodies to newer cemeteries, such as Graceland, that they considered more elegant. An April 1866 letter in the Tribune complained that undertakers were violating the law by filling up the recently emptied graves with fresh bodies.) In 1867 most of the soldiers' bodies were moved to Oak Woods Cemetery, near what's now Jackson Park.


In 1869 the new Lincoln Park Commission took control of the land, but documents show it lacked the money to make any improvements. A year later the Tribune reported that half the cemetery's purchased graves were still there, along with all 25,000 bodies in the potter's field. "It is rapidly falling into decay," the newspaper said.



Officials implored the owners of cemetery lots to move the bodies, but few complied, Bannos says. A Common Council document from April 1871 had park officials reporting that they'd "devoted their attention" to protecting the shoreline and constructing Lake Shore Drive. There was no mention of the graves.


Then came the Great Chicago Fire, sweeping through what remained of the cemetery on October 9, 1871, and destroying many markers. (As she delved into the history of the Chicago City Cemetery, Bannos found herself sniffing old property records and council minutes, convinced that she could smell the fire on them.) Afterward officials removed the remaining headstones and vaults—except for the Couch tomb. Bannos now believes that tomb stayed where it was because the park commission couldn't afford the $3,000 it would've cost to move it.


The city began transferring bodies from the potter's field to a graveyard for the poor at Dunning, the poorhouse, TB hospital, and insane asylum run by Cook County on what's now Chicago's northwest side. On September 18, 1872, a Tribune headline announced: "The Remains of Over 10,000 Dead Persons Still to Be Taken Away." The article said a crew of ten men was hauling out bodies at the rate of 20 per day. Less than a month later, the paper reported that nearly all of the bodies had been removed without explaining how the task had been completed so quickly. Bannos is skeptical.


In April 1874, park commissioners, apparently tired of waiting for the families to step up, condemned 712 cemetery lots, each of which could have contained as many as eight graves. Park records show bodies being disinterred as late as 1887.


Asked why she thinks some were left behind, Bannos says, "It's not as if someone wasn't doing their job or someone was lying. It just got very confusing.

"
Historian A.T. Andreas only made things worse when he published his three-volume History of Chicago between 1884 and 1886. Andreas inaccurately described the Milliman tract, a 12-acre section of the cemetery that had been the subject of a lawsuit, as if it were the entire cemetery and implied that the cemetery had been emptied. "That was the basis of several of the history books," Bannos says. "That becomes the source material, and that gets quoted.

"
Based on the records she examined, Bannos tallied 35,000 people buried in the City Cemetery and the Catholic cemetery, which was on the other side of North Avenue between Dearborn and Astor, extending south to Schiller. After counting the bodies moved to Graceland and estimating the number moved to other cemeteries, she calculated that no more than 22,500 bodies were taken out of the Lincoln Park graveyards. That leaves more than 12,000 unaccounted for.


"The numbers are astounding," Bannos says. "To say thousands, which sounds exorbitant, is conservative.

"
Asked if it's likely that thousands of bodies were left behind, the History Museum's Russell Lewis says, "A lot of these things are speculation. Her speculation is as good as anyone's, but some of these are questions that can't be answered.

"
The Park District's Julia Bachrach says the ground is undoubtedly filled with bones, but she prefers not to use the word "bodies" to describe them. "That makes it sound like a graveyard, and it's not," she says. "The land has been disturbed too much. It's skeletal remains.

"
Bannos found ten reports of bones being discovered on parkland, plus nine more in the residential neighborhood where the Catholic cemetery used to be. In 1899, when workers were digging in that area, the Tribune reported that "recent excavations exposed row after row of the heads of coffins in a state of good preservation.

"
Former Lincoln Park Zoo director Lester Fisher told Bannos that workers found a skeleton and casket when they dug the foundation for the zoo's barn in 1962. After getting no guidance from bureaucrats on what to do, they reburied the casket and poured the foundation on top of it, Fisher told Bannos. (A recording of the interview will be on her Web site.

)
When archaeologists oversaw the exca vation for the Chicago History Museum's parking garage northeast of Clark and LaSalle in 1998, they found pieces of what appeared to be 81 different skeletons as well as an iron coffin containing a body, Bannos says. The coffin was reburied in another cemetery, and the loose bones are now in the Illinois State Museum's collection. To this day, "anytime you do any digging out in the park, it's not unlikely you'll find some human bones," Lewis says.


Just last week construction workers unearthed another bone at 1453 N. Dearborn, between Burton and Schiller; at press time an investigation was under way but police speculated in the Tribune that the site might have been a cemetery. They might want to give Bannos a call.

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1970’s Fun and More
Current mood: amused

Since I have not blogged in a while I thought I might. I dont really have a topic per se so it will just be a bunch of rambling- lucky you!

I have spent the day off (thank the Goddess!) just puttering around. I went shopping a bit with one of my daughters, ( I have the most unique daughters ever! They are very different people but each one is set apart from the norm- unique and creative) had lunch and took a nap! I Love naps! Two of my six cats joined me. cats are experts at napping.
I have been listening to the 1970's station on XM. It amazes me how certain songs can really just take you back. I can actually see, feel and hear 'scenes' from my life. Remember the 'peace sign? The one you do with your hands by putting 2 fingers up?
The 70's were a great time to be in high school. We were just on the edge of all this technology (which in some ways while making our lives easier have made them harder) but there was still a certain innocence that I dont think todays kids have given the things happening in the world today. I was lucky enough (I guess I can look at it that way) to have done some crazy things in those days without much of the worry that todays kids have. I was rather bohemian in those days, and approached so many things with a carefree attitude that is hard to have today. Always stood apart, always the 'wild one', always different, always had a 'reputation' ok.. some well deserved but really the myth is always so much more exciting- well in some cases anyway.

For anyone who remembers the heyday of Discos. All night dancing, spandex pants (that actually looked good), tube tops, "recreational" everything, 'the last dance'. Those were some great memories. In high school our goal nearly every weekend was to see if we could doll up enough to get into the 21 and over clubs. Most of the time we were successful! I recall one time though that I was kicked out for taking a sip of a guys Pina Colada before I was 21. The funny part was the guy was someone I went to high school with and he was a year younger than me. I had my first legal drink at the Rainbow Bar and Grill in Holllywood.
The parties we had in High school were great, Someones parents would leave town and they would pass the word at school. My high school counselors son attended school with me and once we even had a big party at his place! THAT was fun! There was always dancing, and sometimes beer. Sometimes people would bring other items to share with those interested but it was not vital. No thought of people getting out of hand, guns or gangs. Too bad about todays kids, they miss the real fun for fear of what someone might do.
About the time I was in Jr high the show Charlies Angels was popular. All the girls were having their hair cut into 'wings'- at least thats what we used to call it. It was the Farrah Fawcett look. Of course that style does not suit all hair types- but no matter it was the thing to do!

I used to be a really good skater. Roller skates I mean- 4 wheels there were no rollerblades then. I used to skate at Skateland in Northridge, California where I grew up. Eventually I took lessons, taught classes and participated in the dance skating- couples. The art of skating backwards was especiallly desired. I was great at that. It was called 'rexing'. What a fun time that was! I have not been on skates in years and dont even know if I could. Do they even make those sorts of skates anymore?





Thinking of my old neighborhood, I cant help but remember the kids I grew up with there. My closest childhood friend Lisa lived across the street until I was 14 or so. She and I were inseparable! Long hot summers playing hopscotch and jacks on the neighborhood sidewalks. Hide and seek games with all the kids on the block. Climbing the tallest trees in the neighborhood and sittin up their all day. Throwing a handfull of pebbles onto the slanted roof of the family no one liked,to watch them noisily clatter to the rain gutter- then hiding in the junipers and watching them search for the culprits. Fun stuff. Today oddly enough, Lisa lives in the same town as me yet we never see each other or talk. We have lots of childhood memories and anytime we have ever spent time together we enjoy reminiscing , but as adults we are two very different people. She more the upper middle class- doing all the correct and normal things type. Me? well I have always been rather unconventional and a bit Eccentric.
The family next door who moved in when the house was brand new like we did had 4 kids- like my parents eventually would. The youngest of the neighbor boys Robbie was my 'first love' my childhood sweetheart I guess you could say. He was 2 years older than me. We were neighbors until I was about 19 or so and we moved. His entire family eventually moved up to the Lake Tahoe area. My mom kept in touch with his mom for many years. About 8 years ago my mom told me that she had heard from our old neighbor that Robbie had passed away from cancer. Wow - how sad is that? To me he will always be about 14 or so, shoulder length straight blonde hair, hazel eyes, levis cords, walabys and a t-shirt, thats what I always see in my minds eye when I think of him. RIP Robbie.



I am currently reading a great bio of Marie Antoinette. Then its one on John Adams and there are a few fictions on the side that I will be reading too. I tend to read several tomes at once. No its not ADD- I just have so many interests and not enough free time. Reading as mentioned in my profile is one of my passions always has been. I could never understand why all my friends didnt have a book by the bedside to read before sleeping- and how many nights I stayed up late cuz I could not put the book down. As a child I remember my dad taking my older brother and I to the little red brick library in Granada Hills (its still there) I would check out about 6 books knowing I could have them for 2 weeks. I'd make it a point to finish them so I could get a fresh batch.

Tomorrow I spend the day with my Coven as we celebrate Beltaine, I have the greatest friends in my Coven sisters. Each one of them is a woman I admire. They are smart, creative and magical. I learn so much from them daily. I love and appreciate them. They mean the world to me.

9:09 PM - 3 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

The Mystery of the USS Cyclops
Current mood: eccentric

I thought I would take the time to post some information about an enduring mystery that involves my great, great uncle Frank C. Nigg. - Lieut. (JG). He was one of the crew on this ship that vanished without a trace. If you have never heard of this then I hope you will enjoy learning of it.
Our family story, as told by my Grandma 'Jesse' ( little sister of Frank) Goes that Frank and Jesse's mother was sick in bed that day in March in 1918. Jesse had been caring for her Mother for a few days while she rested in bed. Suddenly 'I heard mama calling me Jesse, Jesse come here quickly!' 'I ran up the stairs and into her room and she said 'Listen!' Do you hear that? Do you hear the bell? Its the ships bell, I hear the ships bell!'

Jesse did not hear the bell. But her Mother did and said she knew at that moment that something had happened to Frank, and that was his way of letting her know. She heard the bell the same day that the ship vanished, March 4th 1918.





The USS Cyclops (AC-4) was one of four Proteus-class colliers built for the United States Navy during World War I. Named for the Cyclopes, a primordial race of giants from Greek mythology, she was the second U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name. The loss of the ship and 306 crew and passengers without a trace sometime after March 4, 1918 remains the single largest loss of life in U.S. Naval history not directly involving combat. The ship's fate is still a mystery that remains unsolved to this day. No wreckage of the vessel has ever been found.

Cyclops was launched 7 May 1910, by William Cramp and Sons, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and placed in service 7 November 1910, with Lieutenant Commander George Worley, Master, Naval Auxiliary Service, in charge. Operating with the Naval Auxiliary Service, Atlantic Fleet, she voyaged in the Baltic from May to July 1911 to supply Second Division ships. Returning to Norfolk, Virginia, she operated on the east coast from Newport, Rhode Island, to the Caribbean, servicing the fleet. During the troubled conditions in Mexico in 1914 and 1915, she coaled ships on patrol there and received the thanks of the U.S. State Department for cooperation in bringing refugees from Tampico to New Orleans, Louisiana.
With American entry into World War I, Cyclops was commissioned 1 May 1917, and her skipper, George W. Worley, promoted to Lieutenant Commander. She joined a convoy for Saint-Nazaire, France, in June 1917, returning to the U.S. in July. Except for a voyage to Halifax, Nova Scotia, she served along the east coast until 9 January 1918, when she was assigned to Naval Overseas Transportation Service. She then sailed to Brazilian waters to fuel British ships in the south Atlantic, receiving the thanks of the State Department and CINCPAC.
She put to sea from Rio de Janeiro 16 February 1918. On 20 February, Cyclops entered Bahia. Two days later, she departed for Baltimore, Maryland, with no stops scheduled. She made an unscheduled stop in Barbados on 3 March and 4 March, where Worley called on the United States consul, Brockholst Livingston, and took on additional supplies. Cyclops then set out for Baltimore, and was never seen or heard from again.


The loss of USS Cyclops with all 309 crew and passengers, without a trace, is one of the sea's unsolved mysteries, and is often "credited" to the Bermuda Triangle. It was the earliest documented incident linked to the Bermuda Triangle involving the disappearance of a U.S. vessel. In his 1975 book The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Solved, author Lawrence Kusche investigated this mystery. He revealed that a diver off Norfolk, Virginia, in 1968, reported finding the wreck of an old ship in about 300 feet of water, stating that the bridge "appeared to be on stilts." He was later shown a picture of the Cyclops (which had that peculiar bridge structure) and was convinced it was the ship he had seen. This would have put the Cyclops, according to Kusche, within 60 miles of the Virginia Capes and into the teeth of a storm that hit the area on March 9-10, 1918 (this storm was reported to have done extensive damage between Indiana and Washington, D.C.). The storm, combined with the unusual cargo of manganese, may have sunk her. However, further expeditions to the reported wreck site failed to find anything.
Most who link the disappearance to the Bermuda Triangle cite the fact that the vessel disappeared having sent out no distress signal. However, ship-board communications were in their infant stages in 1918, and it would not be unusual for a vessel, sinking fast, to have little or no opportunity at a distress call. As to date, no trace of the wreckage has been found.
Most serious investigators of the incident believe the ship was likely farther to the north of the Bermuda Triangle when it disappeared, but there is little evidence to either substantiate or dispute that.[9] An indepth look at the incident can be found in the book, Great Naval Disasters, by authors Kit and Carolyn Bonner.

6:11 PM - 4 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

It’s almost March already!
Current mood: creative

 This photo is one I took this morning of a few Dolls that I have. I have them on display in my front room. Their little eyes take in all that goes on around them. When I was a little girl, I was just positive that my Barbies got up and moved on their own once they knew I was asleep. Still can't say for sure that they didn't! I adore old dolls and want to begin collecting them. I am on the look out for photo images and welcome help from my friends on that.


Hard to believe that it's already the end of February. The last wo months have been a flurry of activity mostly involved around helping my daughters move. In mid January my husband and I took a weekend trip to Cambria- a place we love and will visit often. We went up for the Elephant Seal birthing and mating season. Took some great pics there, you can find those in a new album in my pics. We also took more pics at the Cambia cemetery, Santa Rosa Cemetery and St. Patrick's Cemetery in Arroyo Grande. I will have those posted soon.


Below is a photo of a vintage broom stick that one of my friends presented me with last evening at our almost weekly Coffee and Tarot meets. It has a wonderful dark wood twist carved handle. A wonderful addition to my broom collection.

10:20 AM - 3 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment