Last night brought a real treat. The Northern Lights found their way to southern Ohio and I had a decent view from my own front yard.
Mind you, I’m ringed by trees so the view wasn’t great. However, it was good enough given that I’ve always wanted to see this natural phenomenon and it isn’t every day it’s visible in southern Ohio.
I didn’t get to witness much movement but did see light pinks and purples transform into brilliant, rich shades.
I still want to see the lights from Iceland someday but this was a fantastic introduction. Here’s one more!
Perhaps the most iconic place at Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum is the Dexter Mausoleum and Chapel.
It was built on a slope overlooking Geyser Lake in the mid-1860s for Kentucky bourbon baron Edmund Dexter. Dexter was an English immigrant and well known businessman who received important guests like Charles Dickens and the Prince of Whales.
Architect Joseph Foster designed this gothic structure as well as a couple of other buildings at the cemetery. For this project, he took his cues from Sainte Chappelle in Paris and Chichester Cathedral in England, creating a building with the only flying buttresses in all of Cincinnati (these are a structural element on the outside that give the building strength).
The price tag was a cool $100,000 which would be well over $1.3 million today.
There are twelve catacombs on the lower level and a chapel above. They ran out of money before completing the project with a stained glass window and an elevator for moving the caskets.
I read a couple of articles that indicate this sandstone structure could be endangered. It evidently has some structural issues that developed over time and some decorative elements have fallen off the building. Look closely at the center near the top and you’ll still see an E for Edmund.
If you go to Spring Grove, do not miss this spectacular place. It’s well worth a stop to admire and look around.
One more thing. Lest you think your family is screwed up, I give you Exhibit A that it could always be worse. Click here to read about the descendant of the Dexters who built this mausoleum and how she reached from beyond the grave to get her nephew to change his name, hurt her own sister, and cause a firestorm of legal wrangling. It’s shocking what people will do sometimes!
In telling the story of this last long weekend in Cincinnati, it seems prudent to start with the very best and favorite thing that we did. I hope you like it too because you most likely will hear about it more because there are so many pictures and stories to tell from just this place.
Our very favorite place was …… drumroll, please……. a cemetery.
Crickets.
I know. Hear me out.
It isn’t just a cemetery. It’s an arboretum too and the Grande Dame of all the amazing cemeteries at least in this part of the country.
Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum was established in 1845. This nonprofit has 750 acres of trees, 44 miles of paved roads and fifteen lakes. We never left the historic section so I have no idea what the new sections look like but the old areas are amazing.
We parked at the visitors’ center (yes, they have a visitors’ center) and went inside for maps and an overview from a nice man who helped to orient us. There’s a printed walking tour as well as lists of notable people buried here.
From the visitors’ center, you walk under an old stone railroad bridge into what feels like Heaven on Earth. I will be honest with you, we did most of the walking tour but not all. That’s because every stop on the map was surrounded on all directions by other things we wanted to see.
Spring Grove had been on my radar for some time but I had never made it there for one reason or another. I had seen pictures and heard stories but none of it, and I do mean none of it, prepared me for this place.
It is stunning.
When I told Adam about it, I just described it as a cool old cemetery, purposefully trying to surprise him. Little did I know how shockingly beautiful, amazing, and jaw droppingly awesome it would be for a couple of cemetery nerds.
I suppose I should explain that trees are unwelcome in our local cemeteries. Even gorgeous old trees that people love aren’t safe from being cut down if they are too near the boundaries of a cemetery. To find a place that not only has trees but celebrates them is wonderful.
The trees alone are incredible, providing comforting shade on the hot sunny days we visited. They also provide wonderful habitat for an abundance of birds that flitted about chirping and singing their little hearts out.
We were delighted by the turtles, swans and ducks that call the lakes home.
There are monuments of all sizes and mausoleums of varying architectural styles. One monument put up by the International Order of Oddfellows celebrates friendship, love and truth.
There’s a sense of one-upmanship in the historic areas as one wealthy family after another built grandiose mausoleums and erected artwork at their family plots. Columns, obelisks, statuary, granite reliefs, busts and orbs are common.
The true showstopper though is the Dexter, a mausoleum and chapel that robbed me of words for a full minute.
We saw people out walking and running. The cemetery actually puts out mile marker signs along a suggested route to help folks reach their fitness goals. We saw a woman painting and a man reading book. On Sunday, a group of volunteers had convened to plant flowers and I was jealous of them all. We agreed that we would be there all the time of we lived close enough and I’m sure I would volunteer to help out.
Come back tomorrow to read about the Dexter. It has a great backstory and one worthy of its own telling.
Want to visit Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum? Click here for their website. Here you’ll even find a list of upcoming events including tours and volunteer days.
Churches are a common theme here on this blog but I have never shown you anything quite like this. Welcome to Chapel Cave, a recess cave with a chapel shape opening in Ohio’s Hocking State Forest. It’s one of the more off the beaten path destinations for hikers in that area and is located just off a bridle trail.
We hiked, of course. Part of the hike was beautiful. Most of it wasn’t much to talk about but we did have a pretty day to enjoy the hike last fall.
Horse people call it Twenty One Horses Cave because it’s supposed to be large enough to hold that many horses. I don’t know if that’s true but there was a guided group that came through before us and they all got a kick out of riding inside.
Once they emptied out, we had about a minute before a noisy family clamored into the opening for a looksee. For one shining moment in that brief quiet I realized that it really does feel like a chapel. Sacred and solemnly grounded, this place provided a beautiful moment and a breathtaking view.
This is why we explore. These special places and moments are the very best reason to keep searching and to keep looking for more.
My two favorite things in this world are going to places I have never been and repeatedly visiting places in nature that are familiar. That sounds contradictory but it helps me stay sane when I can’t travel.
When you find a place that’s close and that you enjoy, it’s a good idea to study it at different times of day and in different conditions. In nature, the appearance of a single tree can change with the seasons, with the weather and in varying light. It’s obviously different with the new buds of spring, the thick foliage of summer, the brilliant hues of fall and the stark bareness of winter.
The light and shadows make a place different too. The presence of people give a place much different energy as well.
There’s something comforting in this knowledge that while a place can change with conditions, it remains the same in its core. One of my favorite things to do is to revisit a couple of local trails I know well. To watch with quiet anticipation the first blooms of spring, to watch for the turtles on a log where they return each year, to stop and admire the first wildflowers on the forest floor – this all is pure magic.
And then there’s exploration. I firmly believe that you should go somewhere you’ve never been every chance you get. Whether it’s a far away city, a museum exhibit close by or a forest near your home, find a place you haven’t seen and go there. It is good for the mind to see new things because you often will learn something. You may meet someone who changes your worldview. You may find a new passion or realize that old habits and thoughts do not serve you well.
I am dying to hit the open road and to stop and look at things that catch my eye. A road trip will hopefully be in my near future and I can hardly wait. If you haven’t been somewhere new in a while, it’s time to do something about that. Life should be more than a constant parade of work, chores, doctor appointments, errands, kid’s sports and other obligations.
There has to be more to life than that. You get one life. Run wild and free or be quiet and introspective. Explore somewhere. Study it and learn. I have never once regretted an adventure day.
