Bingham Hill Cemetery – A Photo Story
Hidden behind the tree line of a small country canal sits Bingham Hill Cemetery. The path to get there is also hidden, making a visit to this historical place quite the adventure.
Somber and silence are the two words that come to me when I think of describing the feeling you get while visiting Larimer Counties oldest standing cemetery off Bingham Hill Road and North Overland. It's peaceful there, surrounded by farmland and a small canal lined with a wall of towering trees. My favorite time to visit Bingham Hill is at sundown, with the silhouette of sunset beaming the days last light, the best kind of light for the perfectly lite photograph.
There's a lot of both history and tragedy buried in the graves that scatter spaciously across the hill. Children from another time, buried when modern medicine didn't exist, and the winters were harsh without the luxury of heated homes. Manifest Destiny becomes visually evident in a place like Bingham Hill, with both American Indian and white settler burials side by side.
To me, every single grave has a beautiful and possibly sad story behind it, but rather than pick and choose a few to write about, I've decided that a photo story of the cemetery as a whole has the potential to compell you to, perhaps, make a visit of your own.
According to author of History of the Bingham Hill Cemetery Rose L. Brinks, Bingham Hill Cemetery holds an estimate of 130 graves (with the potential 300 counting unmarked graves).