Log Cabin Tombstone

Here’s a log cabin tomb, spotted in Riverside Cemetery in Denver by Neatorama reader Eric Purkalitis, who wrote:

I love the clothespin tombstone you wrote of recently. I live in Denver and there is a really strange cemetery tucked away in the industrial part of town. The link is to a photo of my favorite grave marker, a reproduction of a log cabin. There are many interesting graves at Riverside Cemetery, but the interesting part is the story behind it.

Riverside Cemetery was created to relocate the graves from Denver City Cemetery, which had become dilapidated. Go figure City Cemetery contained the graves of Denver’s elite and was smack in the middle of the wealthiest part of town.
E.F. McGovern was hired to move the graves, but was caused a scandal by piling up multiple bodies together in the new graves. It’s unclear whether he actually matched all of the bodies with their markers.

Denver City Cemetery went on to become Cheesman Park. Adjacent to the park the city erected the Denver Botanical Gardens. Every once in a while the Gardens still dig up old caskets. If the people in the park only knew.

Link [Flickr] – Thanks Eric!