Abandoned Roth Cemetery

Leica M10, 50mm f/1.4 Summilux

We’ve been spending some time hiking to abandoned cemeteries in the Weldon Spring Conservation Area. Yeah, I know: kind of weird but, hey, it’s something socially distant to do on the weekends. We get to play Indiana Jones within a few miles of home. We’ve found roughly 4 cemeteries out of 14 so there are plenty more to go.

We’re also searching for the ruins of the homes and farms that were in the area before the government takeover in 1940. These are much harder to find as there just isn’t much left of most of them: a few foundations, and occasionally steps, wells and cisterns. The government did a pretty thorough job of wiping these homes and towns completely off the map. The cemeteries, however, were generally left alone. The original plan was to relocate all of the graves but apparently the Army never got around to it. And so they stand, often well off any trail and nearly impossible to find without bushwhacking, a GPS, and some luck. A machete would be handy, too. This particular cemetery, though, is easy to find right next to the Hamburg Quarry trail.

Sadie the Collie likes finding these as they usually have shade and some sort of soft ground cover to hang out on.