And if you're feeling contemplative, there might be no better time to visit the historic cemeteries in Salem.
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| Cherry trees in the cemetery |
Here's Watt Shipp's family monument in City View Cemetery.
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| Watt Shipp's family burial plot |
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| Watt Shipp (on quad, second from left) in 1898 at Fairgrounds Notice the huge chainring where Shipp stands! |
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| Patent for a head lamp bracket in 1909 |
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| The Cherry Fair "Electric Parade" on Commercial at night in front of Watt Shipp's. (2004.010.0004 Print, Photographic. The Willamette Heritage Center) |
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| Watt Shipp, Powder King |
Though City View records aren't directly online, burials for the Lee Cemetery on D Street and for the Pioneer Cemetery are online and they're mostly google-able, too. Maybe there's someone in Salem's history you're curious about? See if you can find their burial site and go pay your respects.
Or work it the other way. Go for a walk and write down a few names on monuments you find interesting and then research them when you get home.
Either is a great way to learn about our history.
1 comment:
Yes, I saw the cherry trees in bloom yesterday. Last Sunday they were barely in bud. Talking about cemeteries reminded me of the annual bicycle Tour de Graves around Halloween time in Boston, tracing eras and cemetery styles from colonial graveyards with faded tumbledown headstones to late 19th century garden-style cemeteries like Forest Hills with graceful landscaping and elaborate tombs and grave markers. Here's a link to photos of last year's Tour de Graves (if it works, sometimes links I post here don't show up). http://www.masspaths.net/photos/tdg2013/
Dick Bauer, the guy in the orange pumpkin shirt researches the graveyards and leads the ride. He organizes other history-themed bike rides too, like one for National Train Day in May. The commuter rail system around Boston has a couple of rail cars with two dozen or so bike racks used on summer weekends on routes to beach towns north and south of Boston. The MBTA puts one of these cars in use for National Train Day - cyclists take the train to an outlying station and bike back in town, stopping to see remnants of long-gone rail lines and old depots, some abandoned, some re-purposed.
Sorry to be like a broken record here about Boston, but there are many interesting themed rides there.
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