Memorial 2021

This year for Memorial Day, I wanted to remember and honor as many Frontier Mine No. 1 coalminers as I possibly could.  My preplanning included making tags for the Frontier Mine No. 1 coalminers, and attaching the tags to a single silk yellow flower, which ended up working perfectly. 

The Salt Lake City Cemetery where coalminer, Takamichi Kaneda is buried, suffered a severe windstorm on 8 September 2020.  The destructive windstorm blew in from the east and damaged trees, light poles, bushes and other features at the Salt Lake Cemetery.  The University of Utah measured wind gusts as high as 112 mph.  The cemetery remained closed until one week before Memorial Day 2021.  I was unaware it was closed while the day I was there, as the gate was open and there were no signs stating otherwise.  Here are some photographs of the damage in the section of the cemetery where Takamichi Kaneda is buried.

The day I arrived at the Kemmerer Cemetery, it was windy and cold!  The temperature, according to my car was 50’ and the wind made it even colder.  The Sexton of the Kemmerer Cemetery informed me it had snowed the previous morning!  She also explained about the water line break and so they were unable to water the cemetery lawn causing the grass to still be dormant.  In addition, they were busy digging three new graves and getting ready for Memorial Day. 

As I started out my flowers blew away, my papers and folders attached to my clipboard blew, and I was cold even though I had on my heaviest coat.  I worked two sections and then left to go get something warm to drink and to warm up.  After about an hour, the wind calmed down a little and the sun warmed up enough to make it bearable.  I visited with a sweet dear lady I met previously, who had relatives who died in the Frontier Mine No. 1.  She was thrilled to hear that I was leaving flowers for the coalminers. 

At the Kemmerer Cemetery, I drew maps and directions to each of the coal miner’s gravesites, placed flowers, and took photographs.  I looked back at the sections sprinkled with yellow flowers and realized how many graves were filled shortly after the disaster in 1923.  Such heartbreak and sorrow for the small communities and the miners who died.  The groupings of yellow flowers were humbling.

I also placed a flower at the Rock Springs Cemetery for Thomas Sneddon.

Sadly, I did not get photographs of all of the headstones where I placed a flower, as I was too worried about trying to stay warm and draw maps and directions to the graves.  I will share the photographs I did take and the humbling photographs of the Kemmerer Cemetery.

Sadly, this headstone for Mike Kusnirik has broken.

 

Another headstone, Marion Pernice, has broken.