Eliza Turner

Cemeteries are interesting places; I love to explore them whenever possible and see what turns up. One day during one such walk in the Woodlawn Cemetery of Santa Monica, California one lone tomb stood out among the headstones and caught my attention. So, naturally, I took a closer look and found much more than just an old tomb. The exterior was painted and maintained but when I peered through the rusted gate it quickly become apparent that the inside of the tomb was in a bad state of neglect. The padlock was rusted and a faint cobweb linked it to the gate; it was obvious no one entered the tomb in many decades. The plaque identified the inhabitants as Markus D. Feather (12/18/1837-10/30/1910) and his wife, Susan J. Johnson (11/29/1854-5/26/1904). The masonic symbol indicated that Markus was a freemason and the star meant that Susan was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star (a co-ed masonic organization for Master Masons and their close female family members.) The ceme...

A few weeks ago, I decided to take my camera out one night and see if I could get some good shots in a nearby cemetery. I enjoy walking through cemeteries at night; there is a peacefulness and quiet that you just don’t find anywhere else, at least not without leaving the city. I ended up parking next to a fairly large mausoleum that I had never explored before, so I checked it out. Most of it was outdoor, but there was an interior that looked like a small chapel on the bottom floor. The doors were already locked for the night, so I was not able to go in. There was a second floor as well, but I couldn’t tell what was in there. As you can see in the video to your left, there was a nice fountain at the far end of the mausoleum; the water from it echoed through building and made it sound like it was raining—a very nice touch. Besides the mausoleum, the rest of the grounds were well kept and pretty standard cemetery look. I walked around a little, but didn’t go too far away fro...

Legend has it that, when passing through the flood tunnels between Charleston  Blvd and Sahara Avenue on Sandhill Road in Las Vegas , you can hear the ghostly whisperings of a long dead couple within them. The couple, according the story, were driving down Olive Street on a motorcycle and crashed into the construction debris from when the tunnels were being built. Their bodies were not found until hours later. The spot has long been a local legend for ages, so I decided to check it out on night. Due to the spiked fence, I did not get to walk into the tunnels. From where I could observe, I did not hear any ethereal whispering and nothing out of the normal occurred during my time there. I took a short video and a few pictures though (the video is at the top of this page; the photos are below). I got a lot of “orbs” in the pics taken around this area; however, I do not think they are anything paranormal. The orbs are likely dust reflected off the flash fr...

Photo by Osie Turner The infamous Clown Motel in Tonopah, Nevada, is one of the area’s most unusual roadside attractions. A clown-themed motel in the historic mining town of Tonopah, right in the middle of nowhere, and located next to an old cemetery to boot seems almost made up. But it is real; in fact you can’t miss it if you drive through the town. I wrote a three-part article on the history and background of the Clown Motel already, so I’m not going to rehash all of the details here (links are provided at the end of this post). What I am going to focus on is my own experience while staying at the motel. If the sign and name don’t scare you away from getting a room here, you will have to enter the lobby—where the bulk of the clown collection is to be found. Hundreds of clown figurines, masks, pictures, and various other mediums of clownery cover the walls and bookshelves. And of course the life-sized doll, Bozo the Clown , spends his days sitting in the corner greeting ...

I recently heard about a new Catholic mission being built somewhere outside Pahrump. It caught my interest, as this mission was rumored to have relics of a saint, as well as an impressive new cemetery. I looked into it and had the opportunity to meet with Randy Dizon, whose family owns and operates the St. Therese Mission of Old Spanish Trail. As it turns out, the mission has an office in Henderson, which is where I met Randy, the president of the Dizon family owned Magnificat Ventures Corporation. (Both Magnificant Ventures and the non-profit mission are owned and operated by the Dizon family.) The mission itself lies just over the California border on the Tecopa turnoff from the SR 160 (it is about eight miles from the intersection.) While I would like to see the mission, I thought it best to meet up with Randy at his office and get the background information before making the pilgrimage. Randy says that the mission’s aim is to make it into a place that is as much for the ...

"Reaper" by Konstantin Vasilyev In Konstantin Alexeyevich Vasilyev’s painting, simply titled “Reaper” ("Жница"), we find a very unique blend of imagery. “Death and the Maiden” is a long established theme, particularly favored by Scandinavian artists. The maiden is, naturally, a young woman; she is representative of life, whereas death is either a skeleton, Grim Reaper, or just a very old man. Vasilyev has blended both of them into one person in this painting. The maiden has become death as well as life—a profound statement. When one thinks of death, the image of a dark, cloaked, icy figure is likely to come to mind. Here we find just the opposite. Vasilyev’s Reaper is a young, blond woman with piercing eyes resting against a tree, sickle in hand. While she appears nonthreatening, it is her eyes which give the viewer a hint of her true identity. Her expression lies somewhere between fierce and indifferent; do not let her beauty fool you, to know her is to di...

Coffinwood is just the type of place you always expect to find in one of these little rural Nevada towns but never do. Well, if you are ever driving through Pahrump, you just might stumble upon it. Coffinwood is not only one of the only places you can still purchase a wooden coffin, made to fit, but also any other item you can conjure up can be made coffin shaped. Out of Coffinwood, Bryan and Dusty Schoening run a coffin making business called Coffin It Up. Many of their clientele are Europeans who want a traditional burial. While coffins have fallen out of fashion here in the U.S. and have been replaced with caskets, across the pond, wooden coffins are still widely used. Considering the variety of different cultures on the continent, it is difficult to find a mass producer that can appeal to all of them. Coffin It Up has the advantage, as every one of their coffins is hand made and customized  to every customer’s tastes and preferences. An example of a traditional Jewish co...

Post-mortem photography began in the 19th century, essentially beginning with the invention of the camera, and ended in the 1940s. It was most popular in Britain and America, but it did spread to Eastern Europe by the 1920s. In a broad sense, it is defined as the act of photographing a deceased person. However, in the Victorian age, it became a fine art that may seem a bit macabre to modern sensibilities. It was popular to prop the deceased into a position so as to appear alive with the surviving family or friends posing with them in a sort of family photo. The purpose of this was not to be sensational or macabre, but to have something beautiful to remember your lost loved one by. In the context of the mid-19th century, cameras were new technology and photography a brand new art form and was not as easily available to the public as it is today. That is why they posed the dead to appear, at least in the photo, as if they were still alive. In many cases, these photo shoots would be ...