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For other uses, see Cemetery (disambiguation), Graveyard (disambiguation), and Burial Ground (disambiguation).
Cemetery in China
A cemetery, burial ground or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word cemetery (from Greek κοιμητήριον, "sleeping place")[1][2] implies that the land is specifically designated as a burial ground and originally applied to the Roman catacombs.[3] The term graveyard is often used interchangeably with cemetery, but a graveyard primarily refers to a burial ground within a churchyard.[4][5]
The intact or cremated remains of people may be interred in a grave, commonly referred to as burial, or in a tomb, an "above-ground grave" (resembling a sarcophagus), a mausoleum, columbarium, niche, or other edifice. In Western cultures, funeral ceremonies are often observed in cemeteries. These ceremonies or rites of passage differ according to cultural practices and religious beliefs. Modern cemeteries often include crematoria, and some grounds previously used for both, continue as crematoria as a principal use long after the interment areas have been filled.
Further information: Christian burial
Taforalt cave in Morocco is the oldest known cemetery in the world. It was the resting place of at least 34 Iberomaurusian individuals, the bulk of which have been dated to 15,100 to 14,000 years ago.
Main article: Grave field
Further information: tomb, necropolis, and Funerary art
Neolithic cemeteries are sometimes referred to by the term "grave field". They are one of the chief sources of information on ancient and prehistoric cultures, and numerous archaeological cultures are defined by their burial customs, such as the Urnfield culture of the European Bronze Age.
Les Innocents cemetery in 1550.
From about the 7th century, in Europe a burial was under the control of the Church and could only take place on consecrated church ground. Practices varied, but in continental Europe, bodies were usually buried in a mass grave until they had decomposed. The bones were then exhumed and stored in ossuaries, either along the arcaded bounding walls of the cemetery or within the church under floor slabs and behind walls.
In most cultures those who were vastly rich, had important professions, were part of the nobility or were of any other high social status were usually buried in individual crypts inside or beneath the relevant place of worship with an indication of their name, date of death and other biographical data. In Europe, this was often accompanied by a depiction of their coat of arms.
Most others were buried in graveyards again divided by social status. Mourners who could afford the work of a stonemason had a headstone engraved with a name, dates of birth and death and sometimes other biographical data, and set up over the place of burial. Usually, the more writing and symbols carved on the headstone, the more expensive it was. As with most other human property such as houses and means of transport, richer families used to compete for the artistic value of their family headstone in comparison to others around it, sometimes adding a statue (such as a weeping angel) on the top of the grave.
Those who could not pay for a headstone at all usually had some religious symbol made from wood on the place of burial such as a Christian cross; however, this would quickly deteriorate under the rain or snow. Some families hired a blacksmith and had large crosses made from various metals put on the places of burial.
Cemetery overlooking the Danube, near Cernavodă, Romania
Starting in the early 19th century, the burial of the dead in graveyards began to be discontinued, due to rapid population growth in the early stages of the Industrial Revolution, continued outbreaks of infectious disease near graveyards and the increasingly limited space in graveyards for new interments. In many European states, burial in graveyards was eventually outlawed altogether through legislation.
Instead of graveyards, completely new places of burial were established away from heavily populated areas and outside of old towns and city centers. Many new cemeteries became municipally owned or were run by their own corporations, and thus independent from churches and their churchyards.
In some cases, skeletons were exhumed from graveyards and moved into ossuaries or catacombs. A large action of this type occurred in 18th century Paris when human remains were transferred from graveyards all over the city to the Catacombs of Paris. The bones of an estimated 6 million people are to be found there.[6]
An early example of a landscape-style cemetery is Père Lachaise in Paris. This embodied the idea of state- rather than church-controlled burial, a concept that spread through the continent of Europe with the Napoleonic invasions. This could include the opening of cemeteries by private or joint stock companies. The shift to municipal cemeteries or those established by private companies was usually accompanied by the establishing of landscaped burial grounds outside the city (e.g. extramural).
John Claudius Loudon, one of the first professional cemetery designers.
In Britain the movement was driven by dissenters and public health concerns. The Rosary Cemetery in Norwich was opened in 1819 as a burial ground for all religious backgrounds. Similar private non-denominational cemeteries were established near industrialising towns with growing populations, such as Manchester (1821) and Liverpool (1825). Each cemetery required a separate Act of Parliament for authorisation, although the capital was raised through the formation of joint-stock companies.
In the first 50 years of the 19th century the population of London more than doubled from 1 million to 2.3 million. The small parish churchyards were rapidly becoming dangerously overcrowded, and decaying matter infiltrating the water supply was causing epidemics. The issue became particularly acute after the cholera epidemic of 1831, which killed 52,000 people in Britain alone, putting unprecedented pressure on the country's burial capacity. Concerns were also raised about the potential public health hazard arising from the inhalation of gases generated from human putrefaction under the then prevailing miasma theory of disease.
Legislative action was slow in coming, but in 1832 Parliament finally acknowledged the need for the establishment of large municipal cemeteries and encouraged their construction outside London. The same bill also closed all inner London churchyards to new deposits. The Magnificent Seven, seven large cemeteries around London, were established in the following decade, starting with Kensal Green in 1832.[7]
Urban planner and author John Claudius Loudon was one of the first professional cemetery designers, and his book On the Laying Out, Planting and Managing of Cemeteries (1843) was very influential on designers and architects of the period. Loudon himself designed three cemeteries – Bath Abbey Cemetery, Histon Road Cemetery, Cambridge, and Southampton Old Cemetery.[8]
The Metropolitan Burial Act of 1852 legislated for the establishment of the first national system of government-funded municipal cemeteries across the country, opening the way for a massive expansion of burial facilities throughout the late 19th century.[9]
A cemetery in Nurmijärvi, Finland
A Soviet military cemetery on the island of Saaremaa, Estonia.
The Laird's traditional Scottish graveyard at Kindrogan House, Strathardle.
The town cemetery on the plains of Calhan, Colorado.
The 1,400 square feet (130 m 2) plot pictured here has the graves of nineteen members of the Hillendahl family, including one who was interred in 1854, in the Spring Branch area of Houston, Texas, United States. A descendant of the family sold all of the land around the grave site, but refused to move the actual graves. [10]
There are a number of different styles of cemetery in use. Many cemeteries have areas based on different styles, reflecting the diversity of cultural practices around death and how it changes over time.
Avenue with linden in the cemetery by Ringkøbing, Jutland, Denmark.
Graves at the Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland.
The urban cemetery is a burial ground located in the interior of a village, town, or city. Early urban cemeteries were churchyards, which filled quickly and exhibited a haphazard placement of burial markers as sextons tried to squeeze new burials into the remaining space. As new burying grounds were established in urban areas to compensate, burial plots were often laid out in a grid to replace the chaotic appearance of the churchyard.[11] Urban cemeteries developed over time into a more landscaped form as part of civic development of beliefs and institutions that sought to portray the city as civilized and harmonious.[12]
Urban cemeteries were more sanitary (a place to safely dispose of decomposing corpses) than they were aesthetically pleasing. Corpses were usually buried wrapped in cloth, since coffins, burial vaults, and above-ground crypts inhibited the process of decomposition.[13] Nonetheless, urban cemeteries which were heavily used were often very unhealthy. Receiving vaults and crypts often needed to be aired before entering, as decomposing corpses used up so much oxygen that even candles could not remain lit.[14] The sheer stench from decomposing corpses, even when buried deeply, was overpowering in areas adjacent to the urban cemetery.[15][16] Decomposition of the human body releases significant pathogenic bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses which can cause disease and illness, and many urban cemeteries were located without consideration for local groundwater. Modern burials in urban cemeteries also release toxic chemicals associated with embalming, such as arsenic, formaldehyde, and mercury. Coffins and burial equipment can also release significant amounts of toxic chemicals such as arsenic (used to preserve coffin wood) and formaldehyde (used in varnishes and as a sealant) and toxic metals such as copper, lead, and zinc (from coffin handles and flanges).[17]
Urban cemeteries relied heavily on the fact that the soft parts of the body would decompose in about 25 years (although, in moist soil, decomposition can take up to 70 years).[18] If room for new burials was needed, older bones could be dug up and interred elsewhere (such as in an ossuary) to make space for new interments.[13] It was not uncommon in some places, such as England, for fresher corpses to be chopped up to aid decomposition, and for bones to be burned to create fertilizer.[19] The re-use of graves allowed for a steady stream of income, which enabled the cemetery to remain well-maintained and in good repair.[20] Not all urban cemeteries engaged in re-use of graves, and cultural taboos often prevented it. Many urban cemeteries have fallen into disrepair and become overgrown, as they lacked endowments to fund perpetual care. Many urban cemeteries today are thus home to wildlife, birds, and plants which cannot be found anywhere else in the urban area, and many urban cemeteries in the late 20th century touted their role as an environmental refuge.[21][22]
Many urban cemeteries are characterized by multiple burials in the same grave. Multiple burials is a consequence of the limited size of the urban cemetery, which cannot easily expand due to adjacent building development. It was not uncommon for an urban cemetery to begin adding soil to the top of the cemetery to create new burial space.
Monument of c. 1910 in the Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno in Genoa, Italy, one of the most spectacular of a number of Italian cemeteries featuring large-scale sculpture.
An artwork in a tomb by Victor Brecheret in Cemitério da Consolação, an example of monumental cemetery in São Paulo, Brazil.
A monumental cemetery is the traditional style of cemetery where headstones or other monuments made of marble, granite or similar materials rise vertically above the ground (typically around 50 cm but some can be over 2 metres high). Often the entire grave is covered by a slab, commonly concrete, but it can be more expensive materials such as marble or granite, and/or has its boundaries delimited by a fence which may be made of concrete, cast iron or timber. Where a number of family members are buried together (either vertically or horizontally), the slab or boundaries may encompass a number of graves.
Monumental cemeteries are often regarded as unsightly due to the random collection of monuments and headstones they contain. Also, as maintenance of the headstones is the responsibility of family members (in the absence of a proscribed Perpetual Care and Maintenance Fund), over time many headstones are forgotten about and decay and become damaged. For cemetery authorities, monumental cemeteries are difficult to maintain. While cemeteries often have grassed areas between graves, the layout of graves makes it difficult to use modern equipment such as ride-on lawn mowers in the cemetery. Often the maintenance of grass must be done by more labour-intensive (and therefore expensive) methods. In order to reduce the labour cost, devices such as string trimmers are increasingly used in cemetery maintenance,[citation needed] but such devices can damage the monuments and headstones. Cemetery authorities dislike the criticism they receive for the deteriorating condition of the headstones, arguing that they have no responsibility for the upkeep of headstones, and typically disregard their own maintenance practices as being one of the causes of that deterioration.[citation needed]
Rural or garden
Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery in Newport, Rhode Island
Old graveyard in Elazig, Turkey
A Muslim cemetery at sunset in Marrakech, Morocco
A cemetery in Kyoto, Japan
Two Colonial era graves in Pemaquid, Maine
Noratus cemetery, a medieval Armenian cemetery with a large number of early khachkars. The cemetery has the largest cluster of khachkars in the country.
Main article: Rural cemetery
The rural cemetery or garden cemetery[23] is a style of burial ground that uses landscaping in a park-like setting. It was conceived in 1711 by the British architect Sir Christopher Wren, who advocated the creation of landscaped burial grounds which featured well-planned walkways which gave extensive access to graves and planned plantings of trees, bushes, and flowers.[24] Wren's idea was not immediately accepted. But by the early 1800s, existing churchyards were growing overcrowded and unhealthy, with graves stacked upon each other or emptied and reused for new burials.[25] As a reaction to this, the first "garden" cemetery – Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris – opened in 1804.[26] Because these cemeteries were usually on the outskirts of town (where land was plentiful and cheap), they were called "rural cemeteries", a term still used to describe them today.[25] The concept quickly spread across Europe.[27]
Merry Cemetery, Romania
Garden/rural cemeteries were not necessarily outside city limits. When land within a city could be found, the cemetery was enclosed with a wall to give it a garden-like quality. These cemeteries were often not sectarian, nor co-located with a house of worship. Inspired by the English landscape garden movement,[28] they often looked like attractive parks. The first garden/rural cemetery in the United States was Mount Auburn Cemetery near Boston, Massachusetts, founded by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1831.[29] Following the establishment of Mount Auburn, dozens of other "rural" cemeteries were established in the United States – perhaps in part because of Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story's dedication address – and there were dozens of dedication addresses,[30] including the famous Gettysburg Address of President Abraham Lincoln.
The cost of building a garden/rural cemetery often meant that only the wealthy could afford burial there.[31] Subsequently, garden/rural cemeteries often feature above-ground monuments and memorials, mausoleums, and columbaria. The excessive filling of rural/garden cemeteries with elaborate above-ground memorials, many of dubious artistic quality or taste, created a backlash which led to the development of the lawn cemetery.[32]
Lawn cemetery
In a review of British burial and death practises, Julie Rugg wrote that there were "four closely interlinked factors that explain the 'invention' and widespread adoption of the lawn cemetery: the deterioration of the Victorian cemetery; a self-conscious rejection of Victorian aesthetics in favour of modern alternatives; resource difficulties that, particularly after World War II, increasingly constrained what might be achieved in terms of cemetery maintenance; and growing professionalism in the field of cemetery management."[33]
Cemetery in Franconia, Germany
Typically, lawn cemeteries comprise a number of graves in a lawn setting with trees and gardens on the perimeter. Adolph Strauch introduced this style in 1855 in Cincinnati.[34] While aesthetic appeal to family members has been the primary driver for the development of lawn cemeteries, cemetery authorities initially welcomed this new style of cemetery enthusiastically, expecting easier maintenance. Selecting (or grading) the land intended for a lawn cemetery so that it is completely flat allows the use of large efficient mowers (such as ride-on mowers or lawn tractors) - the plaques (being horizontally set in the ground) lie below the level of the blades and are not damaged by the blades. Unfortunately, in practice, while families are often initially attracted to the uncluttered appearance of a lawn cemetery, the common practice of placing flowers (sometimes in vases) and increasingly other items (e.g. small toys on children's graves) re-introduces some clutter to the cemetery and makes it difficult to use the larger mowers. While cemetery authorities increasingly impose restrictions on the nature and type of objects that can be placed on lawn graves and actively remove prohibited items, grieving families are often unwilling to comply with these restrictions and become very upset if the items are removed. Another problem with lawn cemeteries involves grass over-growth over time: the grass can grow over and cover the plaque, to the distress of families who can no longer easily locate the grave. Grasses that propagate by an above-ground stolon (runner) can cover a plaque very quickly. Grasses that propagate by a below-ground rhizome tend not to cover the plaque as easily.
Calvary Cemetery, Queens, New York
Overgrown cemetery overlooking the Danube, Romania
The lawn beam cemetery, a recent development, seeks to solve the problems of the lawn cemetery while retaining many of its benefits. Low (10–15 cm) raised concrete slabs (beams) are placed across the cemetery. Commemorative plaques (usually standardised in terms of size and materials similar to lawn cemeteries) stand on these beams adjacent to each grave. As in a lawn cemetery, grass grows over the graves themselves. The areas between the beams are wide enough to permit easy mowing with a larger mower. As the mower blades are set lower than the top of the beam and the mowers do not go over the beam, the blades cannot damage the plaques. Up on the beam, the plaques cannot be easily overgrown by grass, and spaces between the plaques permit families to place flowers and other objects out of reach of the mowing.
See also: Environmental impact of conventional burial and Natural burial
A natural cemetery, eco-cemetery, green cemetery or conservation cemetery, is a new style of cemetery as an area set aside for natural burials (with or without coffins). Natural burials are motivated by a desire to be environmentally conscious with the body rapidly decomposing and becoming part of the natural environment without incurring the environmental cost of traditional burials. Certifications may be granted for various levels of green burial. Green burial certifications are issued in a tiered system reflecting level of natural burial practice. Green burial certification standards designate a cemetery as Hybrid, Natural, or Conservation Burial Grounds.
Many scientists have argued that natural burials would be a highly efficient use of land if designed specifically to save endangered habitats, ecosystems and species.[35]
The opposite has also been proposed. Instead of letting natural burials permanently protect wild landscapes, others have argued that the rapid decomposition of a natural burial, in principle, allows for the quick re-use of grave sites in comparison with conventional burials. However, it is unclear if reusing cemetery land will be culturally acceptable to most people.
In keeping with the intention of "returning to nature" and the early re-use potential, natural cemeteries do not normally have conventional grave markings such as headstones. Instead, exact GPS recordings and or the placing of a tree, bush or rock often marks the location of the dead, so grieving family and friends can visit the precise location of a grave.
Columbarium wall
A columbarium wall at Lawnton, Queensland, showing empty niches, plaques and flower holders
Columbarium walls are a common feature of many cemeteries, reflecting the increasing use of cremation rather than burial. While cremated remains can be kept at home by families in urns or scattered in some significant or attractive place, neither of these approaches allows for a long-lasting commemorative plaque to honour the dead nor provide a place for the wider circle of friends and family to come to mourn or visit. Therefore, many cemeteries now provide walls (typically of brick or rendered brick construction) with a rectangular array of niches, with each niche being big enough to accommodate a person's cremated remains. Columbarium walls are a very space-efficient use of land in a cemetery compared with burials and a niche in a columbarium wall is a much cheaper alternative to a burial plot. A small plaque (about 15 cm x 10 cm) can be affixed across the front of each niche and is generally included as part of the price of a niche. As the writing on the plaques has to be fairly small to fit on the small size of the plaque, the design of columbarium walls is constrained by the ability of visitors to read the plaques. Thus, the niches are typically placed between 1 metre to 2 metres above the ground so the plaques can be easily read by an adult. Some columbarium walls have niches going close to ground level, but these niches are usually unpopular with families as it is difficult to read the plaque without bending down very low (something older people in particular find difficult or uncomfortable to do).
As with graves, the niches may be assigned by the cemetery authorities or families may choose from the unoccupied niches available. It is usually possible to purchase (or pay a deposit) to reserve the use of adjacent niches for other family members. The use of adjacent niches (vertically or horizontally) usually permits a larger plaque spanning all the niches involved, which provides more space for the writing. As with graves, there may be separate columbarium walls for different religions or for war veterans. As with lawn cemeteries, the original expectation was that people would prefer the uncluttered simplicity of a wall of plaques, but the practice of leaving flowers is very entrenched. Mourners leave flowers (and other objects) on top of columbarium walls or at the base, as close as they can to the plaque of their family member. In some cases, it is possible to squeeze a piece of wire or string under the plaque allowing a flower or small posy to be placed on the plaque itself or clips are glued onto the plaque for that purpose. Newer designs of columbarium walls take this desire to leave flowers into account by incorporating a metal clip or loop beside each plaque, typically designed to hold a single flower stem or a small posy. As the flowers decay, they simply fall to the ground and do not create a significant maintenance problem.
Holland Cemetery: A rural cemetery in northeast Oklahoma
Family cemeteries in India
A village cemetery in Jednorożec, Poland
While uncommon today, family (or private) cemeteries were a matter of practicality during the settlement of America. If a municipal or religious cemetery had not been established, settlers would seek out a small plot of land, often in wooded areas bordering their fields, to begin a family plot. Sometimes, several families would arrange to bury their dead together. While some of these sites later grew into true cemeteries, many were forgotten after a family moved away or died out.
Today, it is not unheard of to discover groupings of tombstones, ranging from a few to a dozen or more, on undeveloped land. As late 20th-century suburban sprawl pressured the pace of development in formerly rural areas, it became increasingly common for larger exurban properties to be encumbered by "religious easements", which are legal requirements for the property owner to permit periodic maintenance of small burial plots located on the property but technically not owned with it. Often, cemeteries are relocated to accommodate building. However, if the cemetery is not relocated, descendants of people buried there may visit the cemetery.[36]
More recent is the practice of families with large estates choosing to create private cemeteries in the form of burial sites, monuments, crypts, or mausoleums on their property; the mausoleum at Fallingwater is an example of this practice. Burial of a body at a site may protect the location from redevelopment, with such estates often being placed in the care of a trust or foundation. Presently, state regulations have made it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to start private cemeteries; many require a plan to care for the site in perpetuity. Private cemeteries are nearly always forbidden on incorporated residential zones. Many people will bury a beloved pet on the family property.
Arabian tribal
All of the Saudis in Al Baha are Muslims, and this is reflected in their cemetery and funeral customs. "The southern tribal hinterland of Baha – home to especially the Al-Ghamdi and Al-Zahrani tribes – has been renowned for centuries for their tribal cemeteries that are now slowly vanishing", according to the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper: "One old villager explained how tribal cemeteries came about. 'People used to die in large numbers and very rapidly one after the other because of diseases. So the villagers would dig graves close by burying members of the same family in one area. That was how the family and tribal burial grounds came about... If the family ran out of space, they would open old graves where family members had been buried before and add more people to them.
This process is known as khashf. During famines and outbreaks of epidemics huge numbers of people would die and many tribes faced difficulties in digging new graves because of the difficult weather. In the past, some Arab winters lasted for more than six months and would be accompanied with much rain and fog, impeding movement. But due to tribal rivalries many families would guard their cemeteries and put restrictions on who was buried in them. Across Baha, burial grounds have been constructed in different ways. Some cemeteries consist of underground vaults or concrete burial chambers with the capacity of holding many bodies simultaneously. Such vaults include windows for people to peer through and are usually decorated ornately with text, drawings, and patterns. At least one resident believes that the graves unique in the region because many are not oriented toward Mecca, and therefore must pre-date Islam.[37]
Graves are terraced in Yagoto Cemetery, which is an urban cemetery situated in a hilly area in Nagoya, Japan, effectively creating stone walls blanketing hillsides.[38]
The Cross Bones is a burial ground for prostitutes in London. The Neptune Memorial Reef is an underwater columbarium near Key Biscayne.[39]
Online memorials
In the 2000s and 2010s, it has become increasingly common for cemeteries and funeral homes to offer online services. There are also stand-alone online "cemeteries" such as Find a Grave, Canadian Headstones, Interment.net, and the World Wide Cemetery.[40][41]
Customs and practices
Flowers left on the grave of Édith Piaf
In Western countries, and many others[quantify], visitors to graves commonly leave cut flowers, especially during major holidays and on birthdays or relevant anniversaries. Cemeteries usually dispose of these flowers after a few weeks in order to keep the space maintained. Some companies offer perpetual flower services, to ensure a grave is always decorated with fresh flowers.[42] Flowers may often be planted on the grave as well, usually immediately in front of the gravestone. For this purpose roses are highly common.
Small stones on a gravestone in a Jewish cemetery in Germany
Visitors to loved ones interred in Jewish cemeteries often leave a small stone on the top of the headstone. There are prayers said at the gravesite, and the stone is left on the visitor's departure. It is done as a show of respect; as a general rule, flowers are not placed at Jewish graves. Flowers are fleeting; the symbology inherent in the use of a stone is to show that the love, honor, memories, and soul of the loved one are eternal. This practice is seen in the closing scene of the film Schindler's List, although in that case it is not on a Jewish grave.
Wooden crosses with remembrance poppies on them
War graves will commonly have small timber remembrance crosses left with a red poppy attached to its centre. These will often have messages written on the cross. More formal visits will often leave a poppy wreath. Jewish war graves are sometimes marked by a timber Star of David.
Grave candles in the Old Cemetery in Łódź, Poland
Placing burning grave candles on the cemetery to commemorate the dead is a very common tradition in Catholic nations, for example, Poland. It is mostly practised on All Souls' Day. The traditional grave candles are called znicz in Polish.[43] A similar practice of grave candles is also used in Eastern Orthodox Christian nations.
Traditionally cemetery management only involves the allocation of land for burial, the digging and filling of graves, and the maintenance of the grounds and landscaping. The construction and maintenance of headstones and other grave monuments are usually the responsibilities of surviving families and friends. However, increasingly, many people regard the resultant collection of individual headstones, concrete slabs and fences (some of which may be decayed or damaged) to be aesthetically unappealing, leading to new cemetery developments either standardising the shape or design of headstones or plaques, sometimes by providing a standard shaped marker as part of the service provided by the cemetery.
Grave digging
Cemetery authorities normally employ a full-time staff of caretakers to dig graves. The term "gravedigger" is still used in casual speech, though many cemeteries have adopted the term "caretaker", since their duties often involve maintenance of the cemetery grounds and facilities. The employment of skilled personnel for the preparation of graves is done not only to ensure the grave is dug in the correct location and at the correct depth, but also to relieve families from having to dig the grave for a recently dead relative, and as a matter of public safety, in order to prevent inexperienced visitors from injuring themselves, to ensure unused graves are properly covered, and to avoid legal liability that would result from an injury related to an improperly dug or uncovered grave. Preparation of the grave is usually done before the mourners arrive for the burial. The cemetery caretakers fill the grave after the burial, generally after the mourners have departed. Mechanical equipment, such as backhoes, are used to reduce labour cost of digging and filling, but some hand shovelling may still be required.
In the United Kingdom the minimum depth from the surface to the highest lid is 36 inches (91.4 cm). There must be 6 inches (15.2 cm) between each coffin, which on average is 15 inches (38.1 cm) high. If the soil is free-draining and porous, only 24 inches (61 cm) of soil on top is required. Coffins may be interred at lesser depths or even above ground as long as they are encased in a concrete chamber.[44] Before 1977, double graves were dug to 8 feet (243.8 cm) and singles to 6 feet (182.9 cm). As a single grave is now dug to 54 inches (137.2 cm), old cemeteries contain many areas where new single graves can be dug on "old ground". This is considered a valid method of resource management and provides income to keep older cemeteries viable, thus forestalling the need for permanent closure, which would result in a reduction of their work force.
Burial registers
Usually there is a legal requirement to maintain records regarding the burials (or interment of ashes) within a cemetery. These burial registers usually contain (at a minimum) the name of the person buried, the date of burial and the location of the burial plots within the cemetery, although some contain far more detail. The Arlington National Cemetery, one of the United States' largest military cemeteries, has a registry, The ANC Explorer, which contains details such as photographs of the front and back of the tombstones.[45] Burial registers are an important resource for genealogy.
In order to physically manage the space within the cemetery (to avoid burials in existing graves) and to record locations in the burial register, most cemeteries have some systematic layout of graves in rows, generally grouped into larger sections as required. Often the cemetery displays this information in the form of a map, which is used both by the cemetery administration in managing their land use and also by friends and family members seeking to locate a particular grave within the cemetery.
A tomb retrofitted as a residence in the City of the Dead. Cairo's City of the Dead is a centuries-old cemetery that has become home to as many as 1 million Egyptians during the last decades. [46]
Cemetery authorities face a number of tensions in regard to the management of cemeteries.
One issue relates to cost. Traditionally a single payment is made at the time of burial, but the cemetery authority incurs expenses in cemetery maintenance over many decades. Many cemetery authorities find that their accumulated funds are not sufficient for the costs of long-term maintenance. This shortfall in funds for maintenance results in three main options: charge much higher prices for new burials, obtain some other kind of public subsidy, or neglect maintenance. For cemeteries without space for new burials, the options are even more limited. Public attitudes towards subsidies are highly variable. People with family buried in local cemeteries are usually quite concerned about neglect of cemetery maintenance and will usually argue in favour of public subsidy of local cemetery maintenance, whereas other people without personal connection to the cemetery often argue that public subsidies of private cemeteries is an inappropriate use of their taxes. Some jurisdictions require a certain amount of money be set aside in perpetuity and invested so that the interest earned can be used for maintenance.[47]
Another issue relates to limited amount of land. In many larger towns and cities, the older cemeteries which were initially considered to be large often run out of space for new burials and there is no vacant adjacent land available to extend the cemetery or even land in the same general area to create new cemeteries. New cemeteries are generally established on the periphery of towns and cities, where large tracts of land are still available. However, people often wish to be buried in the same cemetery as other relatives, and are not interested in being buried in new cemeteries with which there is no sense of connection to their family, creating pressure to find more space in existing cemeteries.
A third issue is the maintenance of monuments and headstones, which are generally the responsibility of families, but often become neglected over time. Decay and damage through vandalism or cemetery maintenance practices can render monuments and headstones either unsafe or at least unsightly. On the other hand, some families do not forget the grave but constantly visit, leaving behind flowers, plants, and other decorative items that create their own maintenance problem.
Re-use of graves
Prague's Old Jewish Cemetery is the last resting place for more than 100,000 people who had been buried here since the 15th century.
Jewish cemetery "Heiliger Sand" in Worms, Germany
All of these issues tend to put pressure on the re-use of grave sites within cemeteries. The re-use of graves already used for burial can cause considerable upset to family members. Although the authorities might declare that the grave is sufficiently old that there will be no human remains still present, nonetheless many people regard the re-use of graves (particularly their family's graves) as a desecration. Also re-use of a used grave involves the removal of any monuments and headstones, which may cause further distress to families (although families will typically be allowed to take away the monuments and headstones if they wish).
On the other hand, cemetery authorities are well aware that many old graves are forgotten and not visited and that their re-use will not cause distress to anyone. However, there may be some older graves in a cemetery for whom there are local and vocal descendants who will mount a public campaign against re-use. One pragmatic strategy is to publicly announce plans to re-use older graves and invite families to respond if they are willing or not. Re-use then only occurs where there are no objections allowing the "forgotten" graves to be re-used. Sometimes the cemetery authorities request a further payment to avoid re-use of a grave, but often this backfires politically.
A practical problem with regard to contacting families is that the person who initially purchased the burial plot(s) may have subsequently died and locating living family members, if any, many decades later is virtually impossible (or at least prohibitively expensive). Public notice about the proposed re-use of graves may or may not reach family members living further afield who may object to such practices. Therefore, it is possible that re-use could occur without family awareness.
Some cemeteries did foresee the need for re-use and included in their original terms and conditions a limited tenure on a grave site and most new cemeteries follow this practice, having seen the problems faced by older cemeteries. Common practice in Europe is to place bones in an ossuary after the proscribed burial period is over.[47]
However, even when the cemetery has the legal right to re-use a grave, strong public opinion often forces the authorities to back down on that re-use. Also, even when cemeteries have a limited tenure provision in place, funding shortages can force them to contemplate re-use earlier than the original arrangements provided for.
Another type of grave site considered for re-use are empty plots purchased years ago but never used. In principle it would seem easier to "re-use" such grave sites as there can be no claims of desecration, but often this is made complicated by the legal rights to be buried obtained by the pre-purchase, as any limited tenure clause only takes effect after there has been a burial. Again, cemetery authorities suspect that in many cases the holders of these burial rights are probably dead and that nobody will exercise that burial right, but again some families are aware of the burial rights they possess and do intend to exercise them as and when family members die. Again the difficulty of being unable to locate the holders of these burial rights complicates the re-use of those graves.
Cemetery excavations, like this one in Madrid, can alleviate overcrowding.
As historic cemeteries begin to reach their capacity for full burials, alternative memorialization, such as collective memorials for cremated individuals, is becoming more common. Different cultures have different attitudes to destruction of cemeteries and use of the land for construction. In some countries it is considered normal to destroy the graves, while in others the graves are traditionally respected for a century or more. In many cases, after a suitable period of time has elapsed, the headstones are removed and the now former cemetery is converted to a recreational park or construction site. A more recent trend, particularly in South American cities, involves constructing high-rise buildings to house graves.[48]
Cemeteries in the United States may be relocated if the land is required for other reasons. For instance, many cemeteries in the southeastern United States were relocated by the Tennessee Valley Authority from areas about to be flooded by dam construction.[49] Cemeteries may also be moved so that the land can be reused for transportation structures,[50][51] public buildings,[52] or even private development.[53] Cemetery relocation is not necessarily possible in other parts of the world; in Alberta, Canada, for instance, the Cemetery Act expressly forbids the relocation of cemeteries or the mass exhumation of marked graves for any reason whatsoever.[54] This has caused significant problems in the provision of transportation services to the southern half of the City of Calgary, as the main southbound road connecting the south end of the city with downtown threads through a series of cemeteries founded in the 1930s. The light rail transit line running to the south end eventually had to be built directly under the road.
Maintenance and mourning
A belltower at Forest Home Cemetery, in Fifield, Wisconsin. Tolling bells during funerals has been customary in some places around the world.
A roadside cemetery in Hualien, Taiwan
Cemetery authorities also face tension between the competing demands of efficient maintenance with the needs of mourners.
Labour costs in particular have risen substantially and so finding low-cost maintenance methods (meaning low-labour maintenance methods) is increasingly important.[citation needed] However, as discussed above, the use of large mowers and string trimmers might be efficient but often cannot be used in cemeteries because they physically are too large to fit between graves or because they can damage the monuments and headstones. In this regard, older cemeteries designed at a time of relatively low-cost labour and limited automation tend to present the greatest difficulties for maintenance.
On the other hand, newer cemeteries might be designed to be more efficiently maintained with lower labour through the increased use of equipment, e.g. lawn cemeteries where the maintenance can be performed with a ride-on mower or lawn tractor. European Commission regulations mandate placement of a portable toilet on every cemetery in the EU. However, efficient maintenance of newer graves is often frustrated by the actions of mourners who often place flowers and other objects on graves. These objects often require manual intervention; in some cases objects will be picked up and returned after maintenance, in other cases (e.g. dead flowers) they will be disposed of.
Again, although cemetery authorities try to prohibit the quantity and nature of objects placed on graves (a common restriction is to allow only fresh flowers, not in a vase or pot), but mourning families might ignore any such regulations and become very upset if other objects are removed. In particular, in an era in which the death of children is now relatively uncommon, some parents create quite large shrines at their child's grave, decorating them with toys, wind chimes, statues of angels and cherubs, etc. as a manifestation of their grief, adding items to the pile of objects on the grave progressively over time. Cemetery authorities have to try to deal with such situations sensitively, as strong emotions are involved. However, as well as their own maintenance problems with such "shrines", families with graves in the surrounding area often complain to cemetery authorities about the "mess", as they believe it detracts from the dignity of their family's graves. Therefore, the cemetery authorities must find a solution that satisfies both parties.
Cemetery gate, Galisteo, New Mexico
In many countries, cemeteries are places believed to hold both superstition and legend characteristics, being used, usually at night times, as an altar in supposed black magic ceremonies or similarly clandestine happenings, such as devil worshipping, grave-robbing (gold teeth and jewelry are preferred), thrilling sex encounters or drug and alcohol abuse not related to the cemetery aura (see below).
The legend of zombies, as romanticized by Wade Davis in The Serpent and the Rainbow, is not exceptional among cemetery myths, as cemeteries are believed to be places where witches and sorcerers get skulls and bones needed for their sinister rituals.
In the Afro-Brazilian urban mythos (such as Umbanda), there is a character loosely related to cemeteries and its aura: the Zé Pilintra (in fact, Zé Pilintra is more related to bohemianism and night life than with cemeteries, where the reigning entity is Exu Caveira or Exu Cemitério, similar to Voodoo Baron Samedi).
Corpse road
Prison cemetery
Lists of cemeteries by country
Other types of burial places
Catacomb
Churchyard
Coemeterium
Grave field
Mass grave
Tumulus
Unmarked grave
War grave
Regional variations of burial places and practices
Skull and crossbones (Spanish cemetery)
Specific types of burial places
Megalithic tomb
Potter's field
Shaft and chamber tomb
Stone ship
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Removal of remains from cemeteries
Grave robbing
Businesses and professions for cemeteries
Public holidays and traditions in relation to cemeteries
Bon Festival
Qingming Festival
Saturday of Souls
Further aids to find cemetery locations or names of those buried
The Political Graveyard
Other topics related to places of burial
Association of American Cemetery Superintendents
Elephants' graveyard
^ κοιμητήριον. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project
^ Harper, Douglas. "cemetery". Online Etymology Dictionary.
^ "cemetery". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
^ Upendran, S. (October 25, 2011). "Know Your English: Difference between 'graveyard' and 'cemetery'". The Hindu.
^ "What's the Difference Between a Graveyard and a Cemetery". January 19, 2013.
^ "Paris' Secret Underworld". CBS News. September 27, 2004
^ Meller, Hugh (1981). London Cemeteries: An Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer. Amersham: Avebury. ISBN 978-0861270033.
^ Melanie Louise Simo (1988) Loudon and the Landscape, p. 283.
^ "The Historical Development of Cemeteries in England".
^ Lomax, John Nova. "The Seoul of Houston: The Weather Was Not the Strong Point on Long Point Archived 2008-08-29 at the Wayback Machine." Houston Press. January 30, 2008.
^ Mytum 2004, p. 50.
^ Worpole 2003, pp. 11–12.
^ a b Nonini 2014, p. 390.
^ Flanders 2014, p. 220.
^ Carroll 2013, p. 362.
^ Upton 1997, p. 131–132.
^ Taylor & Allen 2006, pp. 342–342.
^ Meuser 2010, p. 137.
^ Flanders 2014, pp. 219–221.
^ Worpole 2003, p. 8.
^ Worpole 2003, p. 173.
^ Forman 2014, pp. 357–358.
^ Keels 2003, p. 21.
^ van Rensslaer, M. G. (June 3, 1891). "Garden and Forest". Sir Christopher Wren as Gardener: 254–255.
^ a b LeeDecker 2009, pp. 145, 148.
^ Thomas 2003, p. 32.
^ Mickey 2013, p. 17.
^ Vercelloni & Vercelloni 2010, p. 198.
^ Hodgson 2001, p. 30.
^ Brophy, Alfred (2016). "The Road to the Gettysburg Address" (PDF). Florida State University Law Review. 43: 831–905.
^ Harney 2014, p. 102.
^ Rugg, Julie (2006). "Lawn cemeteries: the emergence of a new landscape of death". Urban History. 33 (2): 213–233. doi:10.1017/S0963926806003786. ISSN 0963-9268.
^ Sears, John F. (1989). Sacred Places: American Tourist Attractions in the Nineteenth Century. University of Massachusetts Press. pp. 117–118. ISBN 978-1558491625. Retrieved July 25, 2013. First introduced in 1855 by Adolph Strauch, superintendent of the Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, the park or lawn cemetery featured open, uncluttered expanses of lawn rather than the uneven, wooded, picturesque scenery of the rural cemetery. [...] By the final decades of the nineteenth century, the park cemetery would become the dominant form of American burial ground.
^ Holden, Matthew H.; McDonald-Madden, Eve (2018). "Conservation from the Grave: Human Burials to Fund the Conservation of Threatened Species". Conservation Letters. 11: n/a. doi:10.1111/conl.12421. ISSN 1755-263X.
^ Brophy, Alfred (2006). "Grave Matters: The Ancient Rights of the Graveyard". BYU Law Review. 2006 (6). Article 2. The "ancient right" of the graveyard is that descendants of those buried on private property have – in many states – an implied easement "in gross" to visit that cemetery. The boundaries of this right, in terms of how frequently descendants (and in a few states other interested people) may visit and for how long, vary by state. In a few southern states, this is provided by legislation; in more states, it is protected by common law decisions. In some states, the right is not yet established by either statute or cases, although it seems likely that in an appropriate challenge most, maybe all, states will recognize at least limited rights of access. See Brophy, supra.
^ "Tradition of Family Cemeteries Disappearing From Tribal Areas". Arab News. September 9, 2006.
^ a giant terraced cemetery in Nagoya
^ "About the Reef". Neptune Memorial Reef.
^ Lives Lived: Michael Stanley Kibbee, M.Sc., P.Eng. The Globe and Mail, March 20, 1997.
^ "Internet WayBack Machine (World Wide Cemetery)". Retrieved March 14, 2017.
^ "City cemetery draws visitors for 150 years"
^ "Zaduszkowe tradycje". TVP Białystok (in Polish). November 2, 2012.
^ Local Authorities Cemeteries Order 1977
^ "Arlington National Cemetery Records Go Online". OnlineSearches News 11.01.2012
^ "Tomb with a view". BBC News. March 6, 2002
^ a b "Can Your Cemetery Really Bury You Forever? | Planet Money | NPR". April 18, 2018 – via YouTube.
^ News: New trend: Cemetery Skyscrapers Archived November 11, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
^ Cemeteries Relocated by TVA. Accessed July 13, 2009.
^ "O'Hare Growth May Mean Moving a Cemetery". NPR, November 19, 2005. Accessed July 13, 2009.
^ St. Johannes Cemetery Relocation. Accessed July 13, 2009.
^ "Remains in 19th century graves downtown ID'd as soldiers". The Tucson Citizen, April 17, 2009. Accessed July 13, 2009.
^ "Cemetery Relocation Battle Ongoing". Archived May 9, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Platte County Citizen, July 4, 2007. Accessed July 13, 2009.
^ Cemetery Act of Alberta. Accessed July 13, 2009.
Cantor, Norman L. (2010). After We Die: The Life and Times of the Human Cadaver. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. ISBN 978-1589017139.
Carmack, Sharon DeBartolo (2002). Your Guide to Cemetery Research. Betterway Books. ISBN 978-1558705890.
Carroll, Andrew (2013). Here Is Where: Discovering America's Great Forgotten History. New York: Crown Archetype. ISBN 978-0307463999.
Colvin, Howard (1991). Architecture and the After-Life. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Curl, James Stevens (2002). Death and Architecture. Gloucestershire: Sutton.
Eggener, Keith (2010). Cemeteries. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 978-0393731699.
Etlin, Richard A. (1984). The Architecture of Death: the transformation of the cemetery in eighteenth-century Paris. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Flanders, Judith (2014). The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London. New York: Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 978-1250040213.
Forman, Richard T.T. (2014). Urban Ecology: Science of Cities. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1107007000.
Grossman, Janet Burnett (2001). Greek Funerary Sculpture. Catalogue of the Collection at the Getty Villa. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.
Harney, Marion (2014). Gardens and Landscapes in Historic Building Conservation. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1118508121.
Hodgson, Larry (2001). The Garden Lover's Guide to Canada. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 978-1568982793.
Keels, Thomas H. (2003). Philadelphia Graveyards and Cemeteries. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia. ISBN 978-0738512297.
LeeDecker, Charles H. (2009). "Preparing for an Afterlife of Earth: The Transformation of Mortuary Behavior in Nineteenth-Century North America". In Majewski, Teresita; Gaimster, David R. M. (eds.). International Handbook of Historical Archaeology. New York: Springer. ISBN 978-0387720685.
Meuser, Helmut (2010). Contaminated Urban Soils. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. ISBN 978-9048193271.
Mickey, Thomas J. (2013). America's Romance With the English Garden. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. ISBN 978-0821420355.
Mytum, Harold (2004). Mortuary Monuments and Burial Grounds of the Historic Period. New York: Kluwer Academic Publishing. ISBN 978-0306480751.
Nonini, Donald Macon (2014). A Companion to Urban Anthropology. Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1118378649.
Salisbury, Mike. "From My Death May Life Come Forth. A Feasibility Study of the Woodland Cemetery in Canada". Earthartist.com.
Taylor, Richard; Allen, Alistair (2006). "Waste Disposal and Landfill: Potential Hazards and Information Needs". In Schmoll, Oliver; Howard, Guy; Chilton, John; Chorus, Ingrid (eds.). Protecting Groundwater for Health: Managing the Quality of Drinking-Water Sources. Cornwall, U.K.: World Health Organisation. ISBN 978-1843390794.
Thomas, Jeannie B. (2003). Naked Barbies, Warrior Joes, and Other Forms of Visible Gender. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-0252028540.
Upton, Dell (1997). "The Urban Cemetery and the Urban Community: The Origin of the New Orleans Cemetery". In adams, Annmarie; McMurry, Sally Ann (eds.). Exploring Everyday Landscapes. Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 978-0870499838.
Vercelloni, Matteo; Vercelloni, Virgilio (2010). Inventing the Garden. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum. ISBN 978-1606060476.
Worpole, Ken (2003). Last Landscapes: the architecture of the cemetery in the West. London: Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1861891617.
Cemeteries at Curlie
This page is based on the Wikipedia article Cemetery; it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA.


text:
Variations in Implant Position Based Upon Planning Strategy
Margaret C. Jones, Medical University of South Carolina
Master of Science in Dentistry
College of Dental Medicine
Zachary Evans
Michael Cuenin
Robert Gellin
Objective: To compare different techniques for the digital planning of dental implant placement using commercially available computed aided design software and assess the variability in planned implant position. Materials and methods: Eight dentists individually planned fifteen dental implants using SimPlant software. For each implant, the examiner planned the implant under four different conditions relating to the amount of digital reference data used: (1) no waxed up tooth, (2) pre-op intra-oral scan, (3) pre-op intraoral scan with a virtual tooth created by the examiner, and (4) pre-op intra-oral scan with wax up tooth in occlusion provided by the prosthodontist. . Implant sites included single tooth-bound, adjacent to a single tooth, and "stand alone" as in a distal abutment for an implant bridge. The implant placements were then compared against each other using analysis software in SimPlant. The outcome variables were angular deviation, horizontal placement, and vertical placement. Results: For all measured outcomes in angulation and horizontal distance, "stand alone" planned implants were significantly different from each other (p-value = < 0.05). For vertical distance outcomes, single tooth-bound edentulous site planned implants were significantly different from each other (p-value=0.0057). Conclusion: The variability between digitally planned dental implants is indirectly proportional to the number and proximity of reference points to the surgical site. If there are many fixed reference points available in close proximity to the surgical site, the estimation is likely to be more accurate in angulation and axial position, but not depth (e.g., a one-tooth edentulous site with adjacent teeth on the mesial and distal surfaces). In situations where there are fewer references (sites with multiple missing teeth), the estimation is more challenging and is prone to variability, which appears to be on par with error created between guided and implant surgery.
Jones, Margaret C., "Variations in Implant Position Based Upon Planning Strategy" (2020). MUSC Theses and Dissertations. 530.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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A new genre of writing has arisen that narrates the urban – in both North and South – through a city's mundane infrastructure. In it, trunk networks, the built environment, public utilities and services appear not only as subjects of interest in their own right, but also as matter implicated in the making of urban functionality, sociality and identity.
Professor Amin argues, based on a reflection on the infrastructures of informal settlements, that there is political merit in maintaining the distinction between visibility and invisibility. To contrast the agency in equal part – for the poor staking out a right to urban settlement – of visible improvisations forced by infrastructural absence, and for the invisibility of hard-won connectivity to the municipal mains for water, electricity, sanitation and transport.
work on the geographies of modern living, for example thinking urban and regional society as relationally and materially constituted; and globalization as an everyday process that thoroughly reconstitutes meanings of the local. He has also contributed to thinking on the economy as a cultural entity, while his writings on race and multiculturalism have helped change policy work on the management of ethnic diversity.


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Features | May 01, 2018
Busy Days in San Antonio—The 2018 USPA Board of Directors Winter Meeting
San Antonio, an anchor of the Texas Triangle (an area of the state containing five major cities and 70 percent of its population), attracted Texas-sized crowds for the USPA Board of Directors meeting March 2-4. The winter meeting, one of the most well-attended USPA meetings in history, contained three days of full agendas and an evening of camaraderie along the Riverwalk after Saturday's annual USPA General Membership Meeting.
After dispensing with obligatory matters (adopting the minutes of the prior meeting and the agenda for the current meeting), the board turned first to filling a vacancy. Pacific Regional Director Jason Putnam Gordon submitted his resignation for personal reasons in March, and the board needed to elect a member from the region to serve through the end of 2018, his remaining term. Two members, Ron Bell and Brett Martin, waged campaigns by inviting supporters to submit testimonial letters and emails to the board. Both received a nomination and addressed the board regarding their qualifications and motivations to serve. Following a secret ballot, the board elected Bell, who immediately took his seat at the boardroom table.
Then the first day's agenda turned to disciplinary matters. Section 1-6 of the Governance Manual guides USPA's disciplinary process, which allows individuals a final right of appeal to the full board. Four individuals appealed disciplinary actions, and the board heard each one before voting to uphold all four actions. Coincidentally, at this meeting the board approved changes to Section 1-6 to better streamline the investigative process. Whether this reduces the time the board spends dealing with appeals remains to be seen.
Meetings of the board's nine standing committees—Competition, Constitution & Bylaws, Executive, Finance & Budget, Governance, Group Membership, Membership Services, Regional Directors and Safety & Training—took up the bulk of the weekend. During these meetings, the committees receive briefings on topics of concern and often (but not always) approve motions that they then bring to the full board over the weekend. Sometimes those motions involve substantive issues; sometimes they involve important but more perfunctory measures. This meeting involved more of the latter, such as:
Approving the annual audit of USPA's financials: USPA's 2016 audit by an outside auditing firm was clean with no areas of concern.
Approving the 2018 budget: The board provided interim approval of USPA's calendar-year budget before January 1 and provided final approval at this meeting. For 2018, USPA is projecting revenues of $3,714,360 and expenses of $3,640,631 to end the year with a $73,729 operational excess and a $224,279 total excess after accounting for investment earnings.
Team Trust Fund allocation: As trustees for the U.S. Parachute Team Trust Fund (now totaling $1,551,109), the board allocated its biennial funding to the U.S. Team to help pay for its registration, jumps, lodging and some meals at the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale World Championships. To send 77 U.S. Team members to this year's four championships in Bulgaria, Poland, Czech Republic and Australia, the board approved an allocation of $100,000, the most ever from the Team Trust Fund. (By law, the board can allocate only the interest earned by the trust fund so that the fund will continue to grow and serve its purpose.)
Kirk Verner, the chair of the agenda-packed Competition Committee, efficiently balanced the time restraints and workload. His leadership allowed the resolution of multiple difficult topics. Notably, after three years of test events including a very successful event at Skydive Perris in California, the committee approved the adoption of speed skydiving as an official USPA National Championships event. The new event paves the way for the selection of U.S. Parachute Team members and secures their eligibility for relevant funding.
The committee, which has been keeping an eye on the USPA National Collegiate Parachuting Championships due to the declining number of entries over the last several years, made a few changes to improve the events, including:
Splitting 2-way formation skydiving into open and advanced classes and placing a restriction of no more than one hour of wind tunnel time on advanced-class competitors;
Significantly revising the 2-way vertical formation skydiving dive pool;
Retiring the Gavin Gavel award.
Oftentimes, the committee must address overall policy in addition to event-specific rules. This year, the committee officially adopted a longstanding policy of using the gender specified by the athlete's government-issued identification for transgender athletes who compete or set records.
The recent death of longtime competitor, judge and record-setter Tom Jenkins, D-7707, occasioned the introduction of a new formation in the 10-way formation skydiving dive pool. The new formation, Tom's Texas, replaces the Hand Prop.
Finally, the committee adopted a variety of changes necessary to keep USPA National Championships event rules consistent with international rules. However, the committee declined to adopt the international canopy piloting freestyle event as part of the USPA National Championships. The committee will review this decision in the future.
Across the hall from the competition committee, the Safety & Training Committee also tackled a long agenda with limited time. Chairman Mike Wadkins handled the added pressure with ease and kept the committee focused and moving forward, prioritizing agenda items as necessary.
Much of the discussion during the committee meetings focused on instructor examiner requirements, and a few motions moved forward to the full board for approval in Sunday's plenary session. The board approved a motion meant to ensure that those who hold the highest instructional rating truly understand the USPA course materials by requiring all USPA Instructor Examiners to speak, read and understand English. In addition, the board approved a motion requiring any examiner candidate to complete at least 25 ground evaluations to receive the rating. And finally, the board approved a motion to require all new examiners to complete three full rating courses before starting to train examiner candidates themselves. (More information on these changes is available in "Rating Corner" in the Safety and Training section of this issue of Parachutist.)
After the time-consuming task of tightening up examiner requirements, the committee tabled some non-time-sensitive agenda items. At its next meeting, the committee will look at possibly adding more landing skill requirements to the PRO rating for those who apply to use small, fast canopies. It will also look at requiring instructors to report the details of each solo student or tandem jump that results in activation of an automatic activation device.
The weekend also included the annual USPA General Membership Meeting, which attracted 101 USPA members from around Texas and across the U.S. The packed conference room was filled with enthusiasm as members received a USPA State of the Association report from staff members discussing exciting projects planned for 2018. Afterward, members engaged board and staff through open dialogue to give their thanks and share their concerns.
The evening wrapped up with a Texas-sized gathering on the Riverwalk.
The USPA Board next meets July 13-15 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Board Says Farewell to Departing Member Jason Putnam Gordon
The board bids an appreciative farewell to Jason Putnam Gordon, who served on the board of directors for five years after being elected Pacific Regional Director in 2012 and reelected in 2015. A corporate attorney, Gordon had a thriving legal practice when he joined the board and had already served on a variety of corporate and non-profit boards. Always reminding the board that he was not USPA's attorney, Gordon nevertheless brought priceless experience and thoughtful advice to the board's decision-making process.
An increasingly busy work schedule and a growing family persuaded him that he would not have the time demanded of a regional director, resulting in his decision to resign his seat on the board in early March. He once estimated that the position requires about 200 hours of dedicated time per year, not counting time spent at board meetings. In a letter to the board, he wrote, "Last year was an eventful year for me as I moved my legal practice to a larger law firm. As I start this year, it is clear to me that the demands of my new position (coupled with my wife and I expecting our first child in April) will leave me with insufficient discretionary time to continue to serve as the Pacific Regional Director. The sport of skydiving has changed my life for the better, and so it has been a privilege to serve the board and the members of the USPA for the last five years."
An active skydiver and amateur (his word) vertical formation skydiving competitor, Gordon served on the board's Competition Committee and Finance & Budget Committee in his first term. He spent his second term on the Group Membership Committee and the Constitution & Bylaws Committee, where he drove to revise USPA's Governance Manual to provide greater transparency and improved decision-making by the board.
"USPA would like to thank Jason, who has a legal background and has generously donated a lot of his time to some thorny legal issues involving USPA," commented USPA President Jay Stokes. "His time and dedication will be missed."
USPA's Newest Board Member: Ron Bell
With the departure of Jason Putnam Gordon, the board elected Ron Bell, D-26863, to serve as the Pacific Regional Director for the remainder of the 2016-2018 term. Prior to the election, Bell secured the endorsements of 119 members who sent testimonial letters and emails to the board on his behalf.
Bell began skydiving as a paratrooper in a long-range surveillance unit in the 1st Battalion (Airborne) 143rd Infantry Regiment of the Army National Guard. After an honorable discharge and a career as the founder of a construction firm, he turned back to skydiving and began his full-time skydiving career in 2007 as an instructor and videographer.
Over the years, Bell has fully immersed himself in the sport by owning and managing an onsite deli and staff house; working as a videographer and a tandem and AFF instructor; and then becoming chief instructor and DZ manager. Bell eventually turned his focus to education and training by becoming a Safety and Training Advisor and instructor examiner, positions he has held since 2011. Having conducted over 60 USPA Instructor Rating Courses, Bell brings a seasoned skydiving career built on a foundation of military leadership to the board.
Bell desires to serve the membership by promoting a productive and positive image of USPA and what it has to offer its members. He says he is committed to using his passion for teaching and his enthusiasm for the sport to serve the members in his region and to be their voice to USPA.
Tags: May 2018
The Spirit of Giving
One Temporary Escape
Jeannie Bartholomew | D-30638


Midfielder Maurice Edu, defender Aaron Jones, midfielder Brian Carroll, defender Richie Marquez, and coach Jim Curtin share the organization's message on behalf of the team.
You Can Play will also be represented at the Pride Night game versus the Columbus Crew with a table on Toyota Plaza before the match.
The Philadelphia Union join an ever growing roster of teams supporting the You Can Play Project, including the San Jose Earthquakes, LA Galaxy, Chicago Fire, Vancouver Whitecaps, Toronto FC, and DC United.


I still see these products being touted quite often around the web and I occasionally have companies and agents trying to get me involved in actively marketing them.
The reason I don't is that I find the whole notion of these products rather questionable. With billions of dollars poured into fuel technology and the pressure on oil companies and auto makers to clean up their environmental act, I find it difficult to believe that outsiders have formulated miracle fuel savers. A chemical analysis of any such product by the big oil companies would very quickly allow them to create a similar additive for their own fuels – and charge accordingly.
EPA registration means nothing except that a product won't create any worse emissions that what your car is already spewing out. It is not an endorsement of its claimed capabilities. As for the independent laboratory testing, I couldn't locate the lab mentioned in the reports.
The little further research I did found the company in question was at that point, they were under investigation by the Attorney General of Florida (I haven't been able to determine the result). Investigation doesn't equate to guilt by any means, but it sows seeds of doubt, especially as you dig around a little more and read some of the debates and investigative stories published online.
There's plenty of these fuel-saver products around; sometimes they are nothing more than an octane booster; which is already available at most gas stations in the form of different fuels available – and these are the safest product to put in your vehicle.
Using 95 RON (Research Octane Number) or 98 RON fuel can give about a 6-7% increase in power and mileage over the standard (in Australia anyway) 91 RON fuels – you'll also pay about the same amount more for these fuels though. I run a 98 RON fuel where I can. In fact, with many newer cars, a higher than standard RON fuel is recommended by the manufacturer and it's a recommendation that should be followed (check your manual).
Note: even before putting "premium" fuels in older vehicles, check with the manufacturer to ascertain suitability.
As for some of the separate add-in products, some can damage your car and actually increase emissions.
The FTC has stated that even for the few gas-saving products that have been found to work, the savings have been very small and at times inconsistent.
The Environmental Protection Agency has run tests on over a hundred so called gas saving gadgets and additives and has found none that work as advertised. It makes me very sad to see unscrupulous operators taking advantage of people who want (and need) to save cash and do something towards minimizing their environmental impact at the same time.
.. and see what comes up. Read the information both for and against in order to make a more educated decision about whether or not to purchase. You'll also need to consider if any modification or additive may void your car warranty.
For some real gas saving strategies that help minimize environmental impact, check out my gas saving tips – it's mostly common-sense stuff.
Read more from the FTC about gas saving pills, additives and gadgets.


Established in 1998 and based in Hamilton, New Zealand, Enlighten Designs is one of New Zealand's largest website design companies delivering innovative and customer focused technology solutions. Their clients range from medium enterprises to large corporate and government organizations. While Enlighten Designs relies on its own infrastructure based in Auckland to serve its client base, leveraging the cloud for overflow capacity has been very rewarding.
While using AWS as part of the live streaming solution, they have deployed instances on Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute (Amazon EC2) to power the underlying infrastructure for streaming live footage of the events. The team at Enlighten Designs shares the architecture (see Architecture Diagram below) designed to stream the cricket series between New Zealand and Pakistan. For the Winter Olympics event, the architecture differs slightly; essentially, all the streaming of content begins at an origin server, and then spreads across 5 additional edge servers to connect to a load-balancer to allow even bandwidth distribution, ensuring a reliable service for viewers.
By using Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP), the streaming audio and video is delivered to the servers via a Flash player over a secure HTTPS connection through Wowza Media Server 2. Each edge server then allows for around 250 streams. To accurately monitor and maintain the correct load, a Firefox plug-in known as Elasticfox is also being used by the team. The ElasticFox tool allows for an easy-to-view dashboard with one-click functionality to scale up or down additional resources as streaming levels change.
To learn more about how AWS can help your media streaming needs, visit our Media Sharing details page: https://aws.amazon.com/media-sharing/.


Home Science Plastic and pollution – what can you do this summer?
Plastic and pollution – what can you do this summer?
Devastating footage of seabirds starving to death because their stomachs are so full of plastic there is no room for food has recently emerged on BBC One documentary Drowning in Plastic.
The birds live on Lord Howe Island, a tiny island off the east coast of Australia. Marine biologists are working hard to save the birds, taking chicks from their nests to physically flush the plastic from their system. They hope that it will give them a chance to survive.
Jennifer Lavers, one of the biologists working with the birds, says that most of the plastic they have found is "entirely preventable".
The consumption of plastic has been in the news very frequently in the past few months, with many establishments banning the use of plastic straws.
An estimated 8.5 million plastic straws are used every single year in Britain alone – and plastic straws are in the top ten list of items to find on a British beach.
So how can you make a difference? Even if you're jetting off to someone outside of Britain, the problem of plastic is a world-wide issue, so it's important to be conscious wherever you go.
The main argument has been focussed around plastic straws, and indeed one of the best things you can do for the environment is using paper straws, eco-friendly straws, or even investing in some metal straws which can be bought for less than £5 on Amazon. Getting your own straws or asking for no straw in your drink if the establishment only has plastic ones is a brilliant way to help the problem of plastic.
It is not just straws – there are plenty of other ways you can help the environment this summer.
The number of plastic bags on UK beaches, incredibly, dropped by nearly half in just a year after the 5p bag charge came into law. You can help even further by purchasing a reusable shopper or a tote bag, and contributing even less to plastic pollution.
A reusable water bottle helps to prevent plastic bottles from appearing on beaches (it's also cheaper than always buying a bottle everywhere you go!). Despite straws being more dangerous to animals, there are more plastic bottles on beaches than straws, but reusable bottles, especially eco-friendly ones, will not end up like this.
As an added bonus, in England, Wales, and Scotland, all licensed premises (those which serve alcohol, like pubs, restaurants, some cafes, takeaways, theatres, cinemas, and sometimes even village halls) are required by law to give you free tap water, so why not get a bottle of free water instead of purchasing one?
If you are taking your own water bottle, step it up and get a lunch box. Making your own food instead of buying it is cheaper anyway!
And even though it's hot, plenty of us still value our coffee above all else. Instead of getting throw-away coffee cups every time you walk into a store, why not invest in your own reusable coffee container? You can use it both at home and out of it, and some stores (like Unio!) give discounts if you bring your own cup.
'Plastic pollution' seems like a scary phrase, but just changing a few things about your daily life makes an enormous difference to our world.
"I so look forward to a future where I'm not pulling clothes pegs out of the bellies of baby birds – that would be brilliant," said Laver.


As the eye wall of severe tropical cyclone Debbie continues to impact the Whitsundays this afternoon the BoM Cyclone Warning Zone now shifts inland to Charters Towers, Mount Coolon, Moranbah, and Pentland. Townsville to St Lawrence and extends to include Townsville, Mackay.
Areas to the south and into the central; and south west are now being warned of flood waters over coming days.
BoM warns of major river flooding over a broad area this week, and a Flood Watch for coastal catchments between Ayr and the NSW border, extending inland to parts of the Central Highlands and Coalfields, Central West, Maranoa and Warrego, and Darling Downs and Granite Belt forecast districts.
At three this afternoon Debbie was estimated to be 45 kilometres southeast of Bowen and 10 kilometres northwest of Proserpine at Category 3 intensity.
Emergency Services are now also concerned for Collinsville.
At least one man has been injured badly by a collapsing wall and authorities are warning there could be deaths as the impact of Cyclone Debbie is likely to last up to five days.
45,000 homes were without power and structural damage had been reported in Proserpine.
Bureau of Meteorology regional director Bruce Gunn Collinsville, should be ready for Cat 3 winds, in excess of 165 (kilometres per hour) sometime later this evening.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has also warned of a possible second storm surge later in the day.
It's expected Cyclone Debbie will move slowly southwest over the next 12 to 18 hours before curving to a more southerly track over inland Queensland, weakening as she goes however, heavy rain is expected to continue across the region.
Wind gusts over 125 km/h are occurring about the coast and islands between about Cape Upstart and Cape Hillsborough (north of Mackay), including Bowen and Proserpine and may still reach 220 km/h near the centre for the next hour or two.
Those gusts will extend further west along the coast to areas to Ayr during this afternoon and BoM says they may extend to inland to Collinsville, and Mount Coolon late today into this evening but destructive winds are no longer in Townsville, Charters Towers, Mackay or Sarina.
The focus now is to areas of heavy rain with the potential to cause severe flash flooding have developed around the Central Coast and Whitsundays district. A swift water rescue team has been deployed at Proserpine in anticipation of potential flooding.
These heavy rain areas are expected to spread further inland through central and southeastern Queensland. Widespread daily rainfall totals of 150 to 250 mm are expected.
Australian Army Brigadier Chris Field has been appointed to lead the recovery efforts in north Queensland following Tropical Cyclone Debbie.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk made the bipartisan decision this afternoon.
The Townsville-based Brigadier Field led the Queensland Reconstruction Authority after the 2011 floods and Cyclone Yasi.
Premier Palaszczuk says his previous experience made him the perfect candidate to lead north Queensland in yet another rebuild.


Summary: Responsible for implementation of Community Residence Program by helping residents learn community life skills appropriate to their needs as recorded in their comprehensive service plan so that they may grow toward more independent lives.
Integrate care of residents with other Beacon staff as well as with other service providers.
Following regulations as described by the New York State Office of Mental Health and enumerated by the Policies and Procedures of the Beacon of Hope House, Inc.
Attendance at all meetings as required by the Program or instructed by the Agency.
Case management of clients as assigned by the Program Supervisor. Working with residents to attain skills of daily living, i.e. grooming, dressing, meal planning and preparation, shopping, travel, budgeting, health care, social and recreational skills.
Record keeping responsibilities as indicated by Agency Policy and Procedures. All program staff may record in individual cases records as required by events, interactions or plans.
Responsible for the maintenance of the community residence environment according to the program design and the individual and collective needs of residents.
Engage residents in regular discussion related to their individual long and short-term goals and an evaluation of the services they receive at the Beacon of Hope House.
Assist the Program Supervisor in drafting the resident's comprehensive service plan, providing information regarding the resident. Facilitate the formal involvement of the resident in discussing the service plan. Present descriptive material at rounds or other meetings or conferences relative to the recent functioning of the client.
Carry out strategies for helping which are discussed and agreed at rounds meetings with both Program Supervisor and Program Managers.
Act as liaison for all other services needed by the resident and specified in the comprehensive service plan, which includes scheduling, follow up, collaboration, referral or any other process necessitated by the client's service plan. Services include, but are not limited to: medical, psychiatric, dental, entitlement benefits, day programs, pharmaceutical, travel, emergency, financial, and legal.
Assist in planning and carrying out weekend and evening recreational activities with residents.
This is a full-time position. Must be able to work flexible/shift schedule and be available for emergencies.
The demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.
ascend/descend stairs, place items above and below the head, and continually reposition during working hours.
Exposure to routine cleaning products and household chemicals.
Travel locally using public transportation, traverse city streets, and be exposed to outside weather conditions while escorting clients.
Assist clients in daily living tasks such as cooking, cleaning, packing, laundering, etc. requiring moving, transporting, positioning, using cooking utensils, and/or positioning objects.
Work with clients who require consistent and comprehensive support.
Willing to work flexible hours and be available for emergencies as needed.
Applicants must submit a resume and cover letter highlighting relevant past experience and qualifications, and state their position of interest and desired compensation. Submissions without this information will not be considered.


Sunday 10 December 2017 7:30pm.
On December 10, ICAN will be awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.
Join ICAN in Melbourne, where the campaign began, to stigmatise, prohibit, and eliminate nuclear weapons.
The evening will involve short speeches by ban champions, an art auction, live music, and a live cross to the Australian team in Oslo.


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About ACSM/
Corporate Engagement/
ACSM Approach to Partner Development
For more than 60 years, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) has advanced and translated – independently and without bias or regard to funding agencies – scientific research to provide educational and practical applications of exercise science and sports medicine. ACSM and its members are dedicated to promoting well-being, sport safety, fitness and physical activity through research, education and public health efforts that positively impact quality of life for athletes, patients and the public worldwide.
ACSM has translated this commitment into a substantial record of scientific and clinical advances for improving health and safety outcomes.
The importance of intersector collaboration has long been recognized by the World Health Organization and many others. To have a substantial national and global impact, the health and science sector has to work with other areas of society. ACSM considers such an approach important as well and, accordingly, pursues and engages in well-designed partnerships with governments, national governing bodies, academia and industry to achieve its goals.
As part of standard operating procedure, ACSM's leadership:
Reviews and assesses its partnerships to ensure continued alignment with the College's mission and goals.
Recognizes its ethical responsibility to disclose relationships with funding partners. This has been ACSM's longstanding policy.
Maintains a clear and well-defined separation between the financial support of partners and the programmatic decisions that are made by the College on matters of science, policy and advocacy.
Continually seeks ways to further strengthen its approach to partnership sustainability and development.
ACSM is committed to scientific integrity and transparency and has worked diligently to maintain these ideals in a rapidly changing world. While ACSM values its partners, none interfere with, influence or keep the College from achieving its mission.


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Travel in the U.S. | West
Fun Things to Do in Sequoia National Park with Kids
Sequoia National Park is one of the top national parks in the country to visit with kids. The giant trees make it an enchanting place, even for the most well-traveled adults. Pair the park's mammoth sequoias with its lovely California summer weather, clear night skies, easy paved hikes, and numerous creeks and rivers, and it's a difficult destination to top for families. Hiking, fishing, stargazing, bouldering, and swimming are just some of the popular things to do in Sequoia National Park with kids.
*Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended. Please check out our disclosure policy for more details. Thank you for your support!
There are plenty of family-friendly places to stay in Sequoia for every budget and style. So whether you want to rough it outdoors in a tent, kick back in a rustic cabin, or settle into a beautiful lodge, there's a perfect place to spend the night. This Sequoia Lodging Guide covers every single lodging option inside the national park and categorizes lodging by area.
Without further ado, here are some of the very best things to do in Sequoia National Park with kids.
PLANNING A TRIP TO SEQUOIA DOWNLOAD THIS 2 DAY ITINERARY
Popular Things to Do in Sequoia National Park with Kids
1. The Giant Forest Museum
2. The General Sherman Tree
3. General Grant Tree
4. Crystal Cave
5. Hospital Rock
6. Drive through Tunnel Log
7. Tunnel Rock
Where to Hike in Sequoia National Park with Kids
8. Big Trees Trail
9. Moro Rock
10. Crescent Meadow Loop
11. Tokopah Falls Trail
12. Congress Loop Trail
From Sequoia National Park to Yosemite
Kids are curious, and The Giant Forest Museum is a great place to start your visit to provide context to what they will soon be exploring. Kids will learn about the trees, how Sequoia became a national park, and why protecting the giant sequoias is essential.
Photo: Jenna Becker
They'll also learn about the human history of the area. Their favorite part of this attraction will undoubtedly be the interpretive trails that run from the museum to Round Meadow and Hazelwood.
If there's one thing you shouldn't miss when exploring Sequoia National Park with kids, it's the General Sherman Tree. Of all the trees in the world, it's the largest by volume and one of the oldest.
Named after American Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman, this giant is 275 feet tall (84 meters) and over 2,000 years old. It's easy to get to, awe-inspiring to look at, and the best example to show kids just how spectacular these trees really are!
Top Things to do at Joshua Tree National Park
If seeing the General Sherman Tree sparks an interest in seeing more enormous Sequoia trees, don't miss the second largest tree in the world, the General Grant Tree.
At 267 feet tall (81.5 meters) and around 1,600 years old, this tree is named after Ulysses S. Grant and is found in the Grant Grove area of adjacent Kings Canyon National Park.
Crystal Cave is another can't-miss thing to do in Sequoia National Park with kids. The only way to visit is via a guided tour led by a Park Ranger who knows their way around the fragile environment. Inside this marble cavern, you'll walk a half-mile loop where you'll see impressive stalactites, stalagmites, and underground streams.
Note: Crystal Cave is currently closed due to road damage caused by the KNP Complex Fire. According to the National Park Service website, It should re-open in 2023.
Hospital Rock is both a fascinating geological feature and a working archaeological site. You can find this colossal quartzite rock just off the Generals Highway.
Archaeological work done in the area has unearthed evidence of human activity dating back to 1350 A.D. We now know that this site was once a thriving Native American community.
On-site, there's a little trail that leads to a scenic waterfall, exhibits portraying what life was like in the area in ancient times, and a lovely picnic area.
However, the thing that most intrigues the kids will likely be the old Native American rock paintings covering the large rock walls. Of course, they learned about human history at the museum, but kids can immerse themselves in living history at Hospital Rock and get a good idea of what it would have been like to live in that village so long ago.
Tunnel Log is one of the most famous attractions in Sequoia National Park, and kids understandably love being able to drive through a fallen sequoia tree. Just be forewarned that for large vehicles, it's a tight fit! Walking or driving through gives scale to how big these trees truly are.
Unlike Tunnel Log, you can't drive through Tunnel Rock anymore (though you once could!), but it provides some great photo ops!
Situated along the Generals Highway, this iconic attraction is another favorite with kids. It's essentially a large granite boulder that fell to create a tunnel over the Generals Highway until the road was rerouted in the 1990s.
The Big Trees Trail is less than a mile return, well-maintained, and easy to navigate. It's the perfect trail to get kids used to hiking.
The path sits along the Generals Highway and passes under a canopy of giant sequoias next to a beautiful meadow. Along the way, you'll find benches and interpretive panels describing various natural aspects of the area.
Best Things to Do in Yosemite with Kids
Moro Rock can be a relatively strenuous trail for little legs, but it's fairly short, and if you mention the 350+-step staircase leading to the top, it usually piques excitement. There are handrails lining the path to the top, but young children should still be closely supervised given the steep dropoffs on either side.
Summit at Moro Rock
From Moro Rock, the views are spectacular. You can see canyon, river, valley, and much of the national park below.
The Crescent Meadow Loop is another easy trail perfect for all ages. The main attraction for kids along this trail is the hollowed giant Sequoia known as Tharp's Log that they can enter. Once used as a shelter, today, it makes for a fun discovery.
As you make your way along the path, you'll enjoy the beautiful scenery and have the opportunity to enjoy a mid-hike lunch or picnic. In the early morning, you can often spot deer and bears in the meadow.
A trip to Tokopah Falls is sure to be a highlight of a family trip to Sequoia, and one of the best things about the experience is the easy 4-mile roundtrip trail with minimal incline.
Tokopah Falls Trail
The route departs from Lodgepole Campground and features stunning scenery along a river with granite cliffs, alpine meadows, and pine forest. It ends at a flat area near the impressive falls. At 1,200 feet (366 meters), Tokopah Falls is the tallest waterfall in Sequoia National Park.
The Congress Loop Trail is another short and easy hiking trail that is perfect for doing with kids. Along this trail, you'll pass areas full of more giant sequoias and ultimately reach a contrasting area of barren hillside.
It's only 2.7 miles long and is a great place to take a relaxing stroll through a pristine natural area where you'll have the chance to see some wildlife and spot many species of birds.
In conjunction with visiting Sequoia, many families also tack on a visit to neighboring Yosemite National Park. If this is your plan, this Yosemite Lodging Guide highlights various accommodation options inside and outside the park.
About the author: Jenna is the founder of Up and Away Magazine, where she curates road trip itineraries and lodging guides to America's most beautiful outdoor spaces. Up and Away Magazine aims to inspire others to opt outside in a way that is practical, accessible, and suitable for all budgets. In her spare time, Jenna enjoys hiking, climbing, and backpacking.
How to Spend a Weekend in OKC with Teens


Early November, Eva Auad joined Ken Stringfellow on his first 6 shows for his Benelux playlist. Six small and intimate shows.
Well ok, first one in Paradiso, Amsterdam was with full band but still on the smaller stage of the venue. Stringfellow co-produced Eva's album and asked her to join him on his solo shows while promoting his own album. Eva appears on 2 songs on Stringfellow's album.
You can download the song following this link (click on the small down-pointing arrow). The full show, interviews and the other songs, can be found on this page.
November 29, Ken & Eva will do a show for Ziggo Live (TV), followed by 2 support act shows for De Dijk in Groningen (Nov 30, Dec 1).
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