© Sharon Brown Christopher
In September, a photo friend and I found our way to the old ghost town of Virginia City, Nevada. It was the cemetery, a space removed from the press and noise of tourists that wandered Main Street, that caught my imagination. As I wandered the grounds of eleven contiguous cemeteries named the Silver Terrace Cemeteries, I learned these things about this place of final rest for those who had settled on this hillside in the mid-1800’s:
The earliest cemeteries were haphazard unplanned affairs that are an expression of ideology and belief, just as much as a socially infused representation of material culture.
What is seen today is a powerful tool in the West’s collective memory and a reflection of the population’s sense of place.
© Sharon Brown Christopher
I came across several tombs of infants.
© Sharon Brown Christopher
I wondered about the decisions relating to fencing. Who got in and who was left outside just beyond the enclosed family plot?
© Sharon Brown Christopher
Who was assigned spots at the perimeter of the cemetery?
© Sharon Brown Christopher
I noticed the juxtaposition of this old cemetery and the growing edge of the new growth in Virginia City.
© Sharon Brown Christopher
There were signs here and there of meaningful religious traditions.
© Sharon Brown Christopher
The stroll piqued my curiosity and left me with many unanswered questions. I can still feel the rustle of the cool breeze as it brushed my cheeks in my silent walk through sacred space.
Contributed by Sharon Brown Christopher
© Sharon Brown Christopher/All rights reserved
