Mac Area Masons

What better to do on Labor Day than write random blog posts? Seeing as how all those lovely outside areas are no doubt packed with day trippers, we're, well, sitting around the house today. After yesterday, when I got overly domestic (baking banana bread, thoroughly cleaning the kitchen including the fridge, doing laundry, and making homemade pizza which didn't turn out so great) it's kinda nice to have a day to just sit around and watch Sponge Bob and NCIS. Okay, maybe not the best use of a day off, but it's kinda nice.

We've been living in Oregon for the past six months, which means plenty of time to wander around the countryside looking for interesting sites. On one of these jaunts we wandered on a backroad near Lafayette, and stumbled across a sign for a Masonic Cemetery. Being the cemetery enthusiast that I am, I was naturally curious, and the blocked off weedy road made it even more appealing.

We parked by the side of the road and hiked up the winding trail into a grove of trees. In my past experience, most Masonic cemeteries are pretty well cared for. We checked out one in McMinnville that actually had people in their mobile homes camping out. Okay, that bit seemed a little dodgy, but at least the place was well cared for and it looked like they wanted to keep it that way. The cemetery at the top of the hill, however, was more on the unkempt side.

It took some work to make it through the weeds, and many of the stones were completely overtaken, but we still managed to find some great views.

Amidst the stones and weeds there were also some interesting close up finds.

The most interesting find was this sheltered grave. It was well protected with a fence, complete with secret handshake symbols of some kind. It seemed that even the trees were protecting this area.

An interesting piece of history, hidden away in the hills. Interesting how places that were once so integral to a community become forgotten and overgrown in time.