This time last week, my husband and I spent the night in St. Peters, MO, just northwest of St. Louis. We were on our way home from a two-week ski vacation in Summit County, Colorado, and had driven across most of Kansas and Missouri that day. What a difference a week makes – the laundry is all done, the ski gear is all packed away, the luggage is all back in storage … and I'm almost over the sinus infection that hit me during week two. All in all, we had a great trip with good weather for the drive across country; lots and lots of snow in the mountains; and a few of those gorgeous sunny days that make spring skiing in the west simply divine.
So now that I'm back home and need to write a blog post … but I can't seem to get my head back into genealogy! Still some sinus fog? That's pretty much gone. Spring fever? Maybe. Come on brain … I need a segue from vacation to genealogy … wait, I got it ... photographing a cemetery!
A few of my relatives (you know who you are) find it quite amusing that I take photographs of gravestones. They just don't seem to understand the wealth of information that can be found on those pieces of history. Of course, you're probably wondering, “How does this tie into a ski vacation?”
If you've ever driven across western Kansas, you've probably noticed the old limestone fence posts that can still be seen interspersed in many of the fence rows.
The story behind these “post rocks” fascinates me – the Kansas pioneers learned to quarry and use the stone because the plains had no trees to make traditional fence posts. There is actually a Post Rock Museum in LaCrosse, KS, that we hope to visit one day.
Along I-70 near Dorrance, Russell County, we discovered St. Joseph's Cemetery which has a sign made from a large slab of limestone and is surrounded by a chain fence that incorporates the post rocks.
Looking at the limestone up close revealed a number of really cool fossils in the rock that were shaped like shells.
As I was looking at the sign and the posts, it dawned on me that even though I was in Kansas … here I was … in a cemetery … taking photos … just like being at home!!!
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