Saturday, September 26, 2009

Roslyn, Washington

One day in August, my friend Penelope and I decided to take a trip to Roslyn, specifically to investigate the cemetery there. I'd heard about it years ago and finally found myself in a car on a hot summer day travelling over I-90 to seek it out.

Mind you, we only had some general directions and ended up wandering around the back roads of Roslyn searching for it. At one point, we were at a stop sign and I started feeling kinda weird. There were trees all around and no signs to point us in the right direction. Penelope turned to me and suggested we drive to the left because "that way felt cemetery-ish." I agreed whole-hearted. Low and behold, there it was. It's enormous. It's actually made up of 26 connected cemeteries, each one dedicated to a certain lodge (as in IOOF, Moose, Elk, etc) or ethnic group. The fact that the town visitor center has a pamphlet and cemetery map should tell you how many people seek this cemetery out. Because there are so many immigrants buried there, I imagine a lot of people come here to seek out genealogy information. It's truly immense and in various states of repair. We only investigated a few sections in the hours we visited and I hope to travel there again one day to explore more.



One of the main reasons I wanted to visit was to see the "Druids" section. Of course, I will admit to some disappointment that it wasn't a dedicated burial place for those of a pagan bent. I discovered this entry http://www.interment.net/data/us/wa/kittitas/druids/druids.htm, which says:

"The Druids were an Italian Lodge which is no longer exists in Roslyn. This being so, there is no one to care for the cemetery, so it has become and abandoned cemetery, with no records to be found. "


"Until the day breaks and the shadows fade away"

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