Tree Shaped Tombstones - Edson, Wisconsin

I try to combine several minor errands to the same area into one trip, so it had been a while since I drove past the cemetery in Edson Wisconsin and thought it might be worth a look.  Partly because the cemetery, by virtue of age and general feel, looked as if it might be a place to find "Tree Shaped Tombstones".  And partly because Edson was a curious little place.

When does a community become a ghost town?  I'd say not when it is totally abandoned and the structures are all gone.  But perhaps when the ratio of living citizens to departed ones reaches a certain lopsided ratio.

Union Cemetery, Edson.

Stark, early winter conditions make for interesting cemetery photos.

A young person.  Grief etched into stone can be felt for a very long time.

On the way out of the cemetery I noticed a plaque that gave a bit of local history.  It turns out that a gent by the name of Edson Chubb homesteaded here in 1857, founding a community that at one point had homes, a hotel, a school, church, stores and a sawmill.  All for naught, as the rail road routed a few miles to the north.  The cemetery was established by Mr. and Mrs. Chubb as a resting place for their son Joseph who passed away in 1887.

Here's a map of the little crossroads settlement a few years after that....

It shows a wagon shop, cheese factory, and.....what the heck?  A second cemetery over by the German Catholic church!  Sometimes using Google Earth to scout things backfires as this one does not appear.  Given the greater tendency for Germans to go in for fancy tombstones a second trip was called for....

And, yep.  Another one over in the German Catholic burial ground.  Attentive students will note the little cross on top, this seems exclusive to Catholic monuments.

Having gone to the effort of a second visit I spent a bit more time in Edson.  The hotel building has recently been razed.  It still shows on Google Maps.

The white building next door was a store/post office.  It's still there.  As is a substantial farm house on the spot where Edson Chubb homesteaded, but it is clearly much newer than the 1850's.  Of the various manufacturing enterprises no trace remains.  The ghosts outnumber the living by a margin that is hard to know exactly, but probably 30 to 1.  Counting ghosts is hard.  The ones that used to live in the hotel have probably wandered off elsewhere by now.