Success at Grizzly Cemetery!!!

Yep, I didn’t even get charged by a bull. Not a bull in sight! (Here’s the post about my first attempt if you missed it.) It was a long, hot day. I chose the hottest day of the summer thus far, or close to it, to go wandering about the central Oregon wilderness, looking for cemeteries which have no road access what so ever. So, let’s start with the beginning of the 160 mile, 6 hour road trip.

As always, the drive to and fro the tiny little half acre or smaller cemeteries is just as spectacular as ever. These views can be spotted from Oregon State Highway 27, known as the Crooked River Highway. This highway runs from Prineville Oregon south, to Highway 20 between Millican and Brothers. If you have never been here, this is far, far beyond the middle of nowhere. You passed the Middle of Nowhere back in Utah someplace. This is the very absolute edge of nowhere. You can’t get more nowhere than out here, as beautiful as it is.

Highway 27 near Roberts, Oregon

The southern part of Highway 27 isn’t even paved. It was recently graded (a fact my car was very happy about) and seems like once upon a time, it might have been paved. No longer, friends.

Hillside Barn, Highway 27, Oregon

There are just a few farmers and ranchers left out here, many decendents of the pioneers who settled this land generations ago.

As such, many of these cemeteries are not on public land and as such, I won’t disclose their exact location. A word of warning: get permission first.

Roberts Oregon is an abandoned town site, but is currently private property. The cemetery is up on a hill side surrounded by beautiful but fallow (mostly) fields with some pleasing views.

Roberts Cemetery

This half acre site sitting atop a hilltop in the middle of alkali flats contains family, neighbors and decendents. It is well protected, loved and allowed to grow naturally though still maintained.

White Bronze, Roberts Oregon

I have to admit, I was surprised to see this Whitze Bronze monument in such a small cemetery. It was set well after the hay day of White Bronze, which is fine by me. I’m not sure why people ever found White Bronze as undesirable. I love these monuments.

Roberts Community in Background

The barns and buildings you can see behind the cemetery are all of Roberts. I got excited reading that Roberts was an abandoned township. I immediately thought – ghost town! Not the case. There were no abandoned buildings. In fact, they were very new and well maintained. The community could never grow large enough to establish a modern township. I’m not surprised either. Roberts is so far out from anything else in Central Oregon, and there’s not a paved road for four miles. You’ve seen the whole of Roberts Cemetery, so let’s continue up Highway 27 towards Prineville and Grizzly.

Crooked River Highway, Oregon

I’ve seen almost everything Central Oregon has to offer and it’s not often I’m wowed by a highway. I was the day I drove this one, however. True to it’s name, Highway 27 follows the Crooked River through its canyon. It’s one of the most beautiful (and most hidden) drives in all of Central Oregon. Truly a hidden a gem.

Crooked River Highway, Oregon

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Stumbled Upon a Cemetery by Accident

Don’t you just love it when that happens? As it usually happens with me, I was driving along and looking at the surrounding area when a little hunch crept into my mind. It said “There’s a Cemetery here!” Every time I’m near a cemetery I don’t know about, I get that feeling. Each time I dismiss it, and each time the hunch is right and my logical mind is wrong. If you have an explanation for that, let me know!

Okay, onward then. I had to pass it, for the time being, since I was with my Fiance and her family and we were headed into the mountains to go fishing. After a very successful fishing trip, on our way back I got to drop by this unnamed cemetery.

Howard Cemetery - Ochoco Forest, Oregon

I learned the name of the cemetery after I got home and was able to look up it’s location from this souce:
http://juniperhaven.org/howard.html

I’m going to be in touch with the Crook County historical society to get more background on the history of this very remote cemetery, in an area where there used to be mining operations.

Anyway, I couldn’t learn very much about the cemetery from actually walking around. It was very beautiful, even if it was a bit over grown. In fact, that’s kind of how I like my cemeteries.

John W. Hereford, Howard Cemetery - Ochoco Forest, Oregon

At this point the was down over the horizon and things were beginning to get pretty dark. I could see that this was when it first began, a pioneer cemetery.

Arnold Gerow - Howard Cemetery - Ochoco Forest, Oregon

Mr. Gerow here was the first burial at this location. He must have been fairly well to do to have such a nice headstone in such a remote location as this. I went on the hunt for any evidence of wooden crosses of the “regular” people but those are unfortunately lost to time. If these wooden crosses managed to survive the wood eating bugs, the elements and wild fire, they are surely gone to vandalism and theft. In exploring the eastern side of the cemetery, there was evidence of fire not more than ten years old. Mentioned on the website where I learned the name of this cemetery, are two wooden crosses I never located. That was just a couple years old.

People still visited this cemetery, in one capacity or another. I found cigarette butts and packages, some cans, wrappers and a grocery store receipt no more than one week old.

I did have to wonder where the unknowns were buried, however. The graves were all clustered in the NW corner and left perhaps another acre completely empty. Room to grow perhaps? Even the newest activity however was in the NW corner.

Recent Burial - Howard Cemetery - Ochoco Forest, Oregon

You probably can’t see the date on a photo that small, but the latest inscription is 2005.

Newborn - Howard Cemetery - Ochoco Forest, Oregon

Life was no easier out here, however, than anywhere else. As evidenced here, infants stood a small chance of survival. It’s a sad story of the courage it took to populate the west. This grave is unique also, as it has a somewhat standard memorial marker, it also has this beautiful iron gate around it. Very rare to see an infants grave fenced off in these parts.

Overgrown Plots - Howard Cemetery - Ochoco Forest, Oregon

Overall this is a very pretty, if somewhat unkempt cemetery. It was a pleasure to stumble upon it! Overall it seems to be fairly safe if you want to visit, but there were some plants that did a pretty good poison ivy impression, though I did not think that plant was in the area. I didn’t run into any rattle snakes or (thankfully) any more angry Bulls. There were however lots of ankle breakers, as I call them. Woodchucks, which look to me like big-ass beavers with no tail, seem to be digging up the area. Away from the graves fortunately, as that can have somewhat grizzly repercussions. They’re big enough to swallow a leg, so you certainly have to watch your step!

Woodmen Headstone - Howard Cemetery - Ochoco Forest, Oregon

This location seems to have a lot of unique history I look forward to learning and imparting upon all of you!

Some of you who have caught the photography bug are probably wondering: “If it was so dark, how are your pictures bright enough and not blurred at all???”

I have a couple secrets! First, anyone can do this. It’s just a matter of knowing. When there’s low light, you want to let in as much light as possible to your camera. Any photo taken at a shutter speed slower than 1/500 of a second can actually have hand shake blur. I know, that’s a really fast shutter speed! Most people don’t even notice it however, until your shutter speed gets slower than about 1/80 of a second if you hold really still. So here’s what you do:

Open your aperture up to as wide as possible. On this lens for me, it was an f-stop of 4, or f4. That’s not very big though, so I had to increase my ISO. ISO is the sensitivity of the camera sensor (or film) to light. The higher the ISO number, the less light the camera needs to get a shutter speed. The problem is the higher the ISO, the more noise and grain in the picture.

You can do that and get sharper pictures! We are limited by our equipment however, whatever that may be. For me, I’m not all that limited since I shoot a Canon 5D. My lens also had Image Stabalizing, which is indeed a handy feature! Newer cameras are almost always better in low light, even if they tend to produce noiser pictures. The 5D is actually somewhat old, but still a highly capable professional camera. So that folks, is why you don’t see blurry pictures after dusk. It’s a dash of know how, a large helping of Geek, and some pretty cool camera toys.