The Salem Cemetery
A quick travelogue of a strange place.
Welcome back,
As some of you might now, I am currently writing from the Land of Ye and Obama. In between doing my NaNoWriMo challenge, starting a new fiction project, and spending time with my brother’s family, it’s been a really busy two weeks or so. But it was in this vacation where I found my idea for this week’s blogspot.
Welcome to Salem Cemetery at Palatine, Illinois!1
I don’t claim to be a well-traveled person. But this has to be one of the weirdest places I’ve been to. And it’s located very close to where I’m staying right now2. I’ve noticed this place for a few days before I finally decided to actually pay it a visit. Would you believe that this only happened because my dad asked me to go to the nearest CVS, which happens to be located right across the street? I’ll get into that later.
In today’s society, it’s fashionable to see cemeteries as a scary or spooky place. I’m more of the opposite, I found cemeteries to solemn places. But I’m not here to wax poetically. Instead, I want to direct you to the picture’s background.
I hope the readers are seeing what I’m seeing. I’m pretty sure they do (at least most of them), but I want to show you more pictures to drive the point home:
That’s right, this cemetery is located right around a busy roadway. In fact, it’s located right next to a four-way intersection. It boggles the mind how this was even possible. I can think of some scenarios on how it happened. My theory is that this cemetery was here long before all the development. A look at the tombstones seem to prove this…
Imagine being Mr. Ernst Weseman. When you were buried, this place was probably a small village. There might be swaths of great plains nearby3. Then, some few decades after you were dead and buried, this place went through some commercial and residential developments.
Everything else around the cemetery had been torn down and built over by shops, roads, and parking lots but your tombstone remained there, a reminder of what used to be there.
Of course, that scenario was just something that I thought up. If some local historian out there wants to research how this place came to be, he is welcomed to do so. Unfortunately, Google Maps isn’t particularly helpful for this.
Thankfully, those who were buried here have not been forgotten. This was apparent given how this cemetery was well-maintained, but the point was driven home by this particular headstone:
As you can see, this man had once served in the United States Army. I can only imagine his experience. Given how fresh the American flag looked, it must have been left there recently.
Finally, there is this bench. This is a good place to pray for the repose of the souls of those who were buried here.
And I only visited this place because my dad asked me visit the CVS across the street. So you have this bottle of Vitamin C to thank for this blogpost.
That was Salem Cemetery in Palatine. All in all, I’m glad that I was able to pay this place a quick visit. This is such a strange place that I just had to take look. To be fair, this was not the only cemetery located right next a highway. But I’ve never seen one so small and so surrounded by highways and commercial establishments. I wish I know about this strange piece of land and its history, but I don’t even know where to start4.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this bit of travelogue from Indonesian and American.
Until next time,
Michael P. Marpaung
Google Maps listed this place as being located in Rolling Meadows, IL. But I’m going with Palatine because that’s what the sign says.
Not telling you how close. Don’t feel like doxxing my own family.
I’ve been around the place.
And to be honest, I have other things on my plate.
Not to be too macabre but I love a cemetery. Peaceful, solemn, a place to think, and a place to connect with the past in a human way. Thanks for posting this 🙂