Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire those roadside crosses

One of the caveats in our agreement was even tho it was to be just on the inside of the states edge of ROW you also had to have consent (signature) of the adjoining property owner.

Years ago Indiana put up crosses along the road where there was a fatality to encorage safe driving. It was always easy to tell a bad entersection or curve. The state doesn't do it anymore, but people do. Personally I don't want to remember a loved one that way. I believe in cleaning the area up so as not to be remembered as a place of death. The crew at the Indy 500 paints the wall when there is a crash and we go on racing. We shouldn't think of how awful a death it was, we should remember them in life and how to keep it from happening to someone else. I had friends in highschool, 50 years ago, killed and don't need a memorial to mark those spots. Finally we are seeing solar powered stop signs that flash and simple fixes where there always seemed to be a new crop of crosses. I am a Christian that doesn't want to remember a loved one dying in a ditch every time I drive down that road.

There’s quite a few on the walls honoring those who endowed or contributed to those facilities.

They get elaborate here in Tenn,

Seen one, you’d think the guy was General Patton and The Pope all in one.

big wooden poles, white plastic chain perimeter with shelves and a big portrait,, plastic cemetery flower arrangements, candles, other trinkets.
Sometimes they hang Christmas ornaments on it, plastic Easter eggs. stuffed animals.

Seen another one, big tall cedar wood name plate engraved with a router bit, varnished. That one was the son of a fat cat that screwed me out of a couple grand after I roofed one of his spec builds, skipped town and went to Florida for 6 months, came back when his kid got killed. I decided not to sue him.

This was on I15 at the top of the pass above Wolf Creek going towards Helena last summer, I'm pretty sure I saw a few just like this, I thought they were roadside crosses.

Ever drive across the Rez on Hwy 89 north of Flagstaff ?

This is another Montana road side white cross memorial.
One of you savvy Montanans gotta recognize this one and remember the related event?

In TX, it’s wetbacks doing it. Never saw them here before we got overrun with wetbacks.

Si, los Mojados estos les gustan.

I have travelled all over Mexico, and also Guatemala and El Salvador. The Latinos love these shrines.
It was 30 years ago when I was down there you couldn't get sun powered lights back then. But I saw hundreds of these shrines, all very Catholic with a picture of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus etc. They would usually build a little roof, like a small cave made of bricks or rocks, and they would have a framed portrait of The Virgin, along with a picture of the deceased, and always a dozen candles. Candles always lit!

Now, this might be way out in the country with the nearest house a mile away and the inscriptions said the guy died 2 years ago. Yet, someone is coming down there once a day to put new candles in place, and light them up.

That culud man on CNN says that they're evidence of Klan activity in the area.

Last thing I want my loved ones to remember/celebrate me by is the spot where I died or on a fuggin bumper sticker "in memory of" bull schidt.

Burn me to ashes, release them in a spot I/we loved and let me go.

For good or bad, those things are for those left behind rather than for the departed.

Like flowers at the funeral.

"Lay up your treasures in heaven-----."

Yep.

And I don't wanna be remembered for the worst occasion in my life or be cheapened by a sticker next to a "baby on board" sign.

We had one like that on i-40 several years back, prisoner transfer van had a breakdown, van caught fire, all the convicts were chained to rails,

I can barely remember the spot any more. And the pickets are all long gone.

I've seen two members of the same family total out two 3/4 trucks on a dirt road within 3 miles of their farm. It's like a rite of passage.

A couple things.

Having worked my career in building and maintaining highways and roads, there are rules about placing hazards near a road. The distance varies dependent on the speed of the road. So for a high speed road, it's 30 feet from the white edge line. The reason for the clear zone is to allow an errant car to be able to safely re-enter the roadway. If I remember, a hazard is typically defined as anything more than 4" in diameter and over 4" in height. So a white cross outta say 2x4 lumber is fine. As mentioned, most road maintenance folks are very good about mowing and such around the marker. They usually are very sympathetic towards these markers as they work on those highways for a living - they probably have seen their share of deaths on the highways, and may even recall the instance that caused that marker to be placed there. It effects them and they are very reverent about the loss of someone's loved one.

As far as why folks make the markers, it's part of their grieving process. Everyone handles grief differently. They process it differently. So while it makes no sense for some, it makes complete sense for others.

We built a beaurtiful marker where my Dad crashed and died in 2004. He was forced off the road by a driver passing in a no passing zone. He went off the road, cartwheeled, rolled, and died. We placed a bronze plaque where his truck came to rest. Lots of people have stopped there and placed coins at the plaque.

Building that marker for one of the greatest men whom ever lived was the least we could do. Building that monument sure helped his family recover from that tragic loss.

Those are all over Montana wherever a sharp curve exists up in the mountains. The sharper the curve, the higher up, the more crosses.

Wetbacks are everywhere nowadays. And they can’t drive for schitt.
I suspect a lot of it’s cause they travel at night. Trying to stay under the Radar.

These guys all burned too... The deadliest highway crash in Montana history