Tombstone Tuesday

This picture was taken at Tulocay Cemetery in Napa, CA. The name read Easterby and it was in a sort of open space under this huge tree. The stone itself was pretty raw. Almost as if someone just found a rock and carved the name in it. I need to go back to Tulocay because I had three bored little kids with me that day and it kind of ruined the experience...

James Rankin 1848-1901

James Rankin is buried at Alhambra Pioneer Cemetery in Martinez California. He wasn't included in my original Alhambra post because I wanted to give him his own bio instead of a short blurb included in that post. James Rankin emigrated from Scotland at the age of 17 and landed in New York. In 1869 he headed to San Francisco and eventually ended up finding work in the Black Diamond Mines located between what is now Pittsburg and Clayton California. Between 1869 and 1884 he worked hard in the mines and rose to the rank of Mine Manager while owning a number of hotels and general stores in the lost towns of Nortonville, Somersville and Stewartsville.He was married in 1869 to Sarah who was the sister of his business partner Sam Brown. In 1884 James was elected to the position of Sheriff of Contra Costa County. This prompted him to move his family to Martinez where they renovated a new home to accommodate his growing family. Between the late 1880's and 1890's Rankin stayed very busy splitting his time between Martinez, the mines, and a 650 acre grain ranch he developed near what was then called New York Landing (Pittsburg, CA). In 1899 amid difficulties the Bank of Martinez asked Rankin to become it's president. He held that post until his death in 1901 at the young age of 53.

Martinez is one of the few cities in my area that have seemed to be able to balance the history of the town along with newer construction. In the downtown area many of the houses of the original pioneers can still be seen and are adorned with plaques indicating who lived there originally. I drove around Martinez looking for the Rankin house to no avail. It still exists I just couldn't find it. Part of his land was turned into what is now Rankin Park. It's a beautiful park with lots of trees and a few hiking trails located not far from the cemetery. James Rankin is no doubt an interesting man who had many accomplishments in his lifetime. One of the people that came here in search of the American dream and actually seems to have found it. I'll leave this post with a bit of speculation. I believe his death was most likely due to his work in the Black Diamond Mines. Many of the people in that area died at an early age. Some due to disease and others just from breathing coal dust for a number of years. I can't imagine that to be healthy.

What an adventure

So I'm back folks. After working 4 days in Placerville at the Red Hawk Casino making the impossible possible. I decided this morning to see if I could either find a new blog template or just fix the date problem I had with my existing template. I'm not an HTML whiz by any means and I tried on several new looks. Some looked great but I was too lazy to do a new banner for myself. After taking the better half of 6 hours plus or minus I finally figured out the date problem with the existing template so I can't really call it a new look. Just a few minor changes. I'll hopefully get a post up this weekend that has something to do with cemeteries. I know this is a little off topic but a bit of advice if you're ever thinking of visiting Red Hawk Casino. They have 6 restaurants and I think we tried out all 5 including the buffet. I heard such great things about the buffet so it was the first thing I tried. I can honestly say it was hyped way too much by the people I know that have been there. Needless to say I was not impressed. I didn't even have time to go to the cemetery up there. I was pretty bummed but so tired I don't know if I could have walked the cemetery anyway. One of these days I'll go back to "Hangtown" and see what I can dig up...no pun intended. I'd like to thank you guys as well for reading and listening to what I have to say...Look up in the corner...this post should have a date!!! LOL...

Back on Friday

Just letting everyone know I'm back on Friday. I had to go out of town for work..ugh. Wish me luck...my laptop has none of my pictures so I won't have anything to post until I get back...

Too Slow Saturday/Freaky Friday

This image was originally meant for "Freaky Friday" but since I was busy with that thing that gets in the way of all things fun a.k.a. work. I didn't get a chance to post it. There is nothing particularly freaky about it. I just found it a little strange that two days after I took mine Cheryl at GYR of South Alameda posted it as her Wordless Wednesday. And now it becomes a little freakier as I look at her picture(Click here) then again at mine you notice that in hers the grave seems clean other than a couple cacti. Then back at my picture and you see that there's a ball and a broken jewelry box lying on top. Her picture was taken May 10, 2009 and mine on August 17, 2009. I also took a picture of the jewelry box that was there as well. It looked old and weathered but I never touch anything that families leave on graves with the exception of standing up some windblown flowers. I'm not sure who is buried here because the grave is unmarked.I'm hoping maybe Cheryl can provide me with some insight on this one. I can only speculate that the family had no money for a marker but still comes to visit the grave site of a lost little girl. I don't know why but it seems as if this one turned out to be a little more freaky and interesting than I had imagined when I first started this post.

That Thing Thursday

This weeks "That Thing" is from Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Sebastapol, CA. I'm not sure how long the cross had been there but I found it interesting that it's made from loose rocks as if somebody continually puts it back together.

Wordless Wednesday

Vida B. "In Low"