Ogallala, Nebraska

Live Your Dash:  He lived his dash with his drums. Music and art are often the first subjects to go when school budgets are cut back, but a trip to any cemetery will persuade you they shouldn't be. They outrank all other subjects as headstone icons. How many people take algebra to their graves? How many take music? Ogallala Cemetery. [2019]

Chappell, Nebraska

Live Your Dash:  Two lives, two dashes, two clues to how they lived those dashes. He loved farming. She loved painting. They assuredly had other interests, but this is what they chose to tell successive generations and visitors about their lives. How do you want your life to shine through from the grave? Chappell Cemetery. [2019]

Dalton, Nebraska

The Last Camping Trip ~ From Tents to Trailers . . . :  The fire is going, the marshmallows are roasting, and the beverages are ready to imbibe. The campers, however, seem to have disappeared. Forever or just for a while? Do you think that's their family name, the name of their camper, or the place where they camp? St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery. [2019]

Ogallala, Nebraska

The Boot Hill Genre:  Cemeteries seem like perfect places for communities to inter time capsules, far better than city parks and town squares, which have all sorts of uses and experience all sorts of changes. Ogallala's 100 Year Capsule was buried in 1984 to mark the anniversary of the town's incorporation in 1884. In 2084, it will be exhumed and opened. As for "Inspect 2034": Never heard of such a thing! The capsule supposedly includes two bottles of Scotch. Think it will survive a hundred years? Boot Hill Cemetery. [2019]

Ogallala, Nebraska

The Boot Hill Genre:  Today the set of all-seeing eyes that presides over the cemetery belongs to "The Trail Boss." His ghostly presence in Ogallala's pioneer cemetery commemorates the cattle drives that gave rise to the beef cattle industry of the Northern Plains and the town of Ogallala. Those cattlemen and the Union Pacific Railroad that served the industry sent the town soaring to a population of almost 500 by 1890. Boot Hill Cemetery. [2019]

Ogallala, Nebraska

The Boot Hill Genre:  Of those buried here, "many came by running afoul of the law -- some for stealing another man's horse. . . Most were buried with their boots on, thus the name Boot Hill. Their bodies, placed in canvass sacks, were lowered into shallow graves and marked with a wooden headboard." Over a hundred years later, the ordinary events that transpired on the Nebraska frontier are recalled by historical markers. Thus, our sense of place is not only perpetuated but mythologized. Boot Hill Cemetery. [2019]

Ogallala, Nebraska

The Boot Hill Genre:  How weathers the wood? Well or not well? These markers, commemorative of the pioneer days, date only from restoration work in 2015. What was left of the abandoned cemetery was finished off by a wildfire in the 1950s. A hundred years from now, what do you think these wooden headstones will look like? Not well. In fact, not in existence at all. Now you understand the comparative advantage of granite! Boot Hill Cemetery. [2019]

Ogallala, Nebraska

The Boot Hill Genre:  Ogallala's Boot Hill is but one of dozens throughout the American West. It was necessitated in an era when men were likely to die with their boots on, often while defending themselves and their territories, or their bad habits and offensive words. Some other famous "boot hills" are located in Dodge City, Deadwood, Leadville, Tombstone, and Virginia City. Here, the highest hill on the outskirts of town was used as a burial ground for about 18 years and then replaced by a new cemetery a bit further away. Many of the grave markers were subsequently claimed by the elements. The grave yard was completely abandoned in 1885 and began to deteriorate. Restoration and replacement took place periodically from the 1960s through 2015. Boot Hill Cemetery. [2019]

Bridgeport, Nebraska

The First Shall be Last, and The Last First:  "You can tell my arms to go back to the farm . . . But don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart." It looks like he was a farmer, or more likely a rancher. See the cattle brand? So, he did have a farm to go back to: with his achy breaky heart. He probably added the e to his name just to move him forward a wee bit in alphabetical order. He would have been in his 50s when Billy Ray Cyrus commanded the stage with "Achy Breaky Heart," but (regardless of the orthographical irregularity) he probably got ribbed just a wee bit by his friends. But, at least he had his ribs to protect his heart. Oregon Trail Memorial Park. [2019]

Herman, Nebraska

Picture-Perfect Farmsteads:  Focus on that one lone tree: Heading west you are, leaving the forested "back forty" behind and heading into the great American grasslands. Trees will increasingly be limited to the banks of streams (intermittent or perennial) and to the yards of farm houses where they can be nurtured into shade-giving maturity. Herman Cemetery. [2007]

Blair, Nebraska

Give Me That Old-Time Technology:  Remember when telephones looked like this and were tethered to the wall with a cord? To commemorate those days, we still use the word "dial" when we ring somebody up. And those letters have remained remarkably useful too. Their original function was to designate the "exchange" through which your call was routed. Phone numbers took this format: CE4-8759, a mixture of letters and numbers, and definitely no area codes. The letters always stood for something, in this case perhaps CEdar. Holy Cross Cemetery. [2019]

Herman, Nebraska

T is for Tyson:  You can't approach a tombstone like this without doing the word-association game. "I say 'Tyson'; you say...."  If you have one of those names, patrinyms that have entered the language of popular culture, you know that people aren't thinking of you when they say your name: They're thinking of filling their stomachs with stir-fry or their heads with visions of glory. Herman Cemetery. [2007]

Seward, Nebraska

Etchographic Portraiture:  Abbreviated lives are a loss to humanity. Mothers and fathers suffer, of course. So do brothers and sisters. And pets as well. But, when the young are called away, the whole world suffers, too. Who knows what contributions were his to make? [2008]

Son of Mike & Jessie / Brother of Shane & Danielle
A Friend to All
Children are a Gift from God
Psalms 127:3