Potter's Field

[Oldfireguy]

We found this unkept cemetery out and about the other day. I was told it was for the poor of Tacoma during the late 1800's to early 1900's. There were about 15 headstones in it but you could see there were more people buried there than that. Lots of depressions in the ground.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/fredcwdoc/DSC_2534.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/fredcwdoc/DSC_2551.jpg

[JonMikal]

great find Fred. shame it's unkept, but on the other hand, kinda makes it an interesting place to explore.

[Chiller]

I always wish I could take a trip back in time to witness a burial here...sounds morbid, but this is a forgotten place. Makes me wonder, why was it just left to disapear. Who were these people? Questions like that.

[tjdelikat]

I agree Carl! Sad that's its left that way. :rip:

OFG, contact your local Historical Society and/or Boy Scout Troop. The HS will note it's there (if they don't already have that info) and try to record what they can from the stones and the scouts can straighten it up for a troop community project.

[SnapShooter]

I always wish I could take a trip back in time to witness a burial here...sounds morbid, but this is a forgotten place. Makes me wonder, why was it just left to disapear. Who were these people? Questions like that.

I may not have just disappeared to someone!
My Mothers side of the family has a private cemetery on what once was a part of the original family farm in rural Dauphin County Pennsylvania. The cemetery dates back to the early 1800's. It measurers about 150' X 150'. The farm was very rural in those days of horse and buggy transportation. The only people buried there are family members or other local area friends and neighbors of the early family. Today there is no room for burial of bodies. The remaining grounds are too rocky for casket burial so only cremated remains can be placed here. My remains will one day supplement the growth of these weeds.
When I was a child, my Grandmother was the sole 'keeper' of the cemetery. If she didn't tend to the needs of the grounds, it didn't get done. After her passing, my Uncle Oscar did the honors. Then after he became too old to be able to do this my brother looked after it occasionally. Today, my brother isn't really physically able to keep up with it, so a local Boy Scout Troop looks after it...to some extent.
There are most likely thousands of 'private' cemeteries over the land where the families of those at rest there have either forgotten about it or are just too 'busy' to keep it up. The upleep of places like this are not the responsibility of any government, so they can become pretty unkempt if no one takes the responsibility.

The Cemetery. Within the stand of trees.
http://www.valentine-photography.com/photos/353568269_eGXwb-L.jpg

Some of the graves, the un-manicured grounds, as it appeared last August when I was up there.
http://www.valentine-photography.com/photos/353566954_GhamL-L.jpg
http://www.valentine-photography.com/photos/353550832_7ZyFv-L.jpg
http://www.valentine-photography.com/photos/353552824_3BdYJ-L.jpg

My Mothers Stone. Where her ashes lay.
http://www.valentine-photography.com/photos/353560691_2cP7S-L.jpg

[Oldfireguy]

Paul those are interesting.

[Rozari]

I love the second one. It looks like a pencil drawing.