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To: QwertyKPH
I saw something similar in the early Nineties when I was horseback riding in the hills in rural King County, Washington.

Once there was a thriving coal mining industry in King County, but the mines played out, and the mining towns became ghost towns. When I was horseback riding through the ghost town of Franklin, I found myself riding through a grove with marble stones at the foot of trees, turned at all angles. I looked at one stone and realized I was looking at the headstone of a person who had died of typhoid in 1910. Other stones turned out to be headstones of people who had died in the same period in a typhoid epidemic.

It turned out that I was riding through the cemetery of the town of Franklin. Over the previous 80 years, the rain forest had reclaimed the cemetery, swallowing its gravestones -- and no doubt its bodies.

It was a sobering thought.

10 posted on 06/25/2005 4:50:21 PM PDT by Publius
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To: Publius

What a great story! I love riding and I love going through old cemeteries but to unexpectedly ride through an old, lost cemetery, well, that is just too awesome. And the one you rode through had such historical significance, due to the typhoid epidemic. What an exciting discovery for you.


12 posted on 06/25/2005 6:03:20 PM PDT by tuffydoodle
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