Cemetery
on the Hill
For years and years, I have driven
past the graveyard that sits on the hill just north of I-70. It was one of the “One Day, I’m gonna go up there.” Well that one day arrived a while back. I got permission from the rancher to travel
across his pasture and visit the cemetery.
So a blustery cold day I went down
the highway to the exit off the Interstate.
Bouncing along the gravel roads to the pasture ruts. Up the hill I went, following the ruts,
bouncing over the pot holes, to the old graveyard on the hill. The River Bend Cemetery has a tremendous view
across the Big Sandy Valley.
Here I stood, gazing across the
land. On far ridge to the west is where
the town of River Bend had once been.
Like its name says, the town sat on a bend in the river. Over that ridge down to the tracks is where
the village once was.
Talking with a local museum docent,
she told me that there had once been evil people living there and they are now
buried up on the hill. She was probably
right about the residents of the town, for it had been built by the
railroad. Then the spring of 1879,
Colonel Reno garrisoned his troops here to protect the railroad workers.
This mixture of people would have attracted
the saloon keeps, painted ladies, gamblers and other notorious folks. I’m sure there would have been all types of
conflicts and few resulting in the exchange of bullets.
The cemetery is over two miles to
the east, would they of carted these folks that far or just planted in a hole
down by the creek. One thing the River
Bend Cemetery has, is lots of unmarked graves.
There are slight depressions or flowers growing where the grave had
been.
There are also the grandiose family
plots with the towering markers and wrought iron fences. There is one surrounded by a corral fence and
no grave markers. Some have elaborate
stone work in the graves. A few
headstones have toppled and there the fading wreaths.
A lone tree has survived on the
ridge, the other is but a barren, scoured trunk, standing nearby. There is little moisture and the wind easily scoops
the dirt out and carries it off.
It is a forsaken bleak land, until
the spring showers arrive and the grasses greens up. The graveyard on the hill becomes and emerald
beaming out across the land, a green carpet.
