James Bell

James Bell, the good cop, forever shackled in legend to Bob Olinger's bad, 
both shot and killed by Billy the Kid in 1881. Cedarvale Cemetery, White Oaks, New Mexico.

Bertrand Cemetery, Felt, Oklahoma

Clara Louise Drager

Rhea, Texas

Historic site of Dawson coal town on the market

(Albuquerque Journal) ... Buerger, 45, is the broker for a 50,000-acre private ranch that replaced the coal town of Dawson, at one time the largest company-owned town in the Southwest and site of the second-deadliest mine disaster in U.S. history. Continued

Palo Duro Wildorado Cemetery

 Early settlers to this area included the J.C. Womble family, which came in January 1892. The next year, the community obtained land on which to build a schoolhouse, known as the Union School. In May 1893, George D. Whitfield, a young cowboy, was buried in what was the schoolyard. His is the first marked burial, although two earlier graves were known to exist at the time.

In 1901, residents organized the Palo Duro Missionary Baptist Church and held services in the schoolhouse. They moved across the road in 1905. In May 1910, the school moved approximately two miles north, and the property reverted back to its original owner. The land with the gravesites was deeded to the community in 1914 for use as a cemetery.

During the mid-20th century, area residents bought additional land and added a well and fence. As the burial site of numerous area residents, as well as men and women veterans of the military, the cemetery serves as a link to the area's rich history.

Darrel Coble

Coble headstone featuring the famous 1936 photograph by Arthur Rothstein of the FSA.

 Darrel Coble was the smallest member of the Coble family in the picture posted above. He had every right to be proud. Not only was it a great & famous picture of the Dust Bowl days, it served to point out that not everybody was leaving the Great Plains, many were sticking it out. This at a time when politicians in Washington were considering just giving the whole thing back to the buffalo, or even paving it all over. Believe you me, crazier things happened, back in the '30's.

I like the scenes on the back of stones that show when everything's just right,
those rare moments we all live for,
 the one's that try and explain just why people stuck it out.

And stick it out they did, there are still Coble's in Cimarron County, Oklahoma.

New headstone marks family's grave

Mount Olivet Cemetery circa 2014

(Eastern New Mexico News) Some know it simply as the old burying ground or potter's field and some struggle to describe how to even get there.
"Is that the one with the guy who murdered his family?" said a gas station clerk answering a question from The News as to the location of the Mt. Olivet Cemetery.
Yes, that's the one. Continued

Nuestra Senora de Refugio Cemetery, Puerto de Luna, New Mexico

Cemetery: Des Moines, New Mexico

Family Plot

Buffalo Soldier tragedy of 1877

Buffalo Soldier Tragedy Memorial

(Wikipedia) Buffalo Soldier tragedy of 1877 also known as the "Staked Plains Horror" occurred when a combined force of Buffalo Soldier troops of the 10th Cavalry and local buffalo hunters wandered for days in the dry Llano Estacado region of north-west Texas and eastern New Mexico during July of a drought year.

The groups had united forces for a retaliatory attack on regional Native American groups who had been staging raids on white forces in the area, during what came to be called the Buffalo Hunters' War.

Over the course of five days in the near-waterless Llano Estacado, four soldiers and one buffalo hunter died. Continued

Lazbuddie Cemetery

 

 

 

Causey Cemetery: "How Many Hopes Lie Buried Here"

Eiland Cemetery

Eiland Cemetery is southeast of Portales, New Mexico

 

Union Headstones are rounded on top, Confederate are pointed

 

Pointed

 

Wife on the obverse, unusual, but not unprecedented

 

San Rafael Cemetery: Trementina, New Mexico

 

 

 

 

Melrose North Cemetery, Melrose, New Mexico

Melrose, a small town in New Mexico, has two cemeteries, I don't know why. This is the smaller one, just north of town. There is no sign, but there is a nice flagpole, erected, I assume, by the class of 1973.
Melrose started life as a ranching town named after a rancher named Brown and a rancher named Horn, they called it Brownhorn. Then the railroad came and planned to make it a hub, but there wasn't enough water, so that honor went to Clovis, a little east of there. The railroad left behind a new name and a fine mission style station which still stands.
As usual, I haven't put up pictures of all the graves, just some that caught my eye.