Solomonville Cemetery

Located up a very winding road at the top of a hill in Solomon, Arizona, it's like the world comes to a halt when you arrive at this cemetery. It's you, the graves and the sky above. And a view that you can see for miles across the valley. And in every direction you look there are mountains.

Here many relatives of the Sonoran Jackrabbit are buried. Some have gravestones. And others do not. But I didn't see it at first. I had traveled the twisty, dusty road to the top of the hill in search of my great grandmother Margarita Lopez Robles. I had heard the story from my mother about Margarita and Miguel traveling North in a wagon from Bisbee, Arizona with their brood of children enroute to California. Along the way Margarita died. I haven't been able to locate a death certificate for her so I don't know officially when or what she died from. My mother says it was during childbirth. Not sure that can be corraberated. But what is agreed upon is that Margarita is laid to rest on top of this hill. Her daughter Adela Robles Figueroa is laid to rest here with her also. And it was she that knew exactly where her mother was buried, which pile of rocks covers her resting place. Because Margarita is one of the many that have a blanket of rocks over them; no headstone. And the generations following Adela really aren't sure exactly which grave is Margarita's. Her husband Miguel stopped long enough to lay her to rest at this cemetery off of the Bisbee trail, covered her remains with rocks to keep the animals from bothering the corpse, and mourned as he continued on his way to California. He only got as far as Globe, Arizona. As my mother says, it was the way things were done back in 1914.