Gunsight Cemetery

[Maximus]

Several years ago, I made a loop from Abilene to small neighboring towns taking in the sights. South of Breckenridge, there is the abandoned community of Gunsight with a very old and well taken care of cemetery.

 

[dukey33]

I was curious how the town got its name.
According to TSHA online, it is named after the nearby Gunsight Mountain.

GUNSIGHT MOUNTAIN.Gunsight Mountain is six miles northwest of Eastland and just east of U.S. Highway 183 in northern Eastland County (at 32°31' N, 98°52' W). Its summit, at an elevation of 1,658 feet above sea level, rises 208 feet above U.S. 183. The mountain was named because it runs "as straight as a gun barrel" and has a projecting peak that the early settlers said represented the gunsight.

 

[Texas T]

Those stacked stone graves are pretty unique; I've never seen one before.

Any idea as to who maintains the cemetery?

 

[Windmill]

I like The Old Rugged Cross one and the Confederate one. We have walked many of old cemeteries. There is a history lesson in each.
I bet most head stones were facing east.

 

[SpiritAtBay]

I like The Old Rugged Cross one and the Confederate one. We have walked many of old cemeteries. There is a history lesson in each.
I bet most head stones were facing east.

Don't all cemeteries face east?

 

[Windmill]

I think most graves face East. Christianity mostly gets the tradition from Matthew 24:27 . They are resting in expectant hope of the second comming of Christ. I see it as faith tradition and interesting. God is much larger than a direction of a compass or the direction we se the sun rise. Many other religions have similar beliefs.
Revelations 20 says even the sea will give up the dead so I doubt physical orientation of carbon and DNA is anything other than showing honor and love for those who have gone before us. Direction makes no difference.
To me a grave looks like a bed with a headboard where someone's beloved rests. I was taught the tradition to never even step on a grave. I like the way some Indians honored their dead. There is a great scene in the movie Jerimiah Johnson where he trespassed on a holy Indian burial ground.

 

[Texas T]

Don't all cemeteries face east?

No.
This is Beverly National Cemetery where my dad and grand-dad are interred. The graves face to the SW.

 

[SpiritAtBay]

No.
This is Beverly National Cemetery where my dad and grand-dad are interred. The graves face to the SW.

View attachment 334495

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Interesting

 

[Maximus]

Those stacked stone graves are pretty unique; I've never seen one before.

Any idea as to who maintains the cemetery?

I don't know if it is the county or volunteers.
If I remember correctly, most of the graves faced west and north.