Tempus fugit is a Latin expression meaning "time flees", more
commonly translated as "time flies". The expression was first
recorded in the verse Georgics written by Roman poet
Virgil: "Sed fugit interea fugit irreparabile tempus", which means,
"But it flees in the meantime: irretrievable time flees".
This is unofficially a "missing" cemetery. However, there
was one map I found that had the location marked. You can
imagine my surprise when it showed to be located on the old Dallas
Naval Air Station. What I found was probably one of the
loneliest places you can imagine.
Time seems to have flown away here. I can still vividly
remember the days when LTV and General Dynamics worked in
conjunction with the Navy to develop fighter planes here.
This part of Grand Prairie was a rockin' place! Bars
and restaurants and other "entertainment venues" stayed open 24
hours a day because the base was. The "secret" missions were
flown at night. Now, the "Jefferson Strip" shows it's age due
to the closing and merging of the base with Carswell Air Force Base
in Ft. Worth to become the Carswell Joint Reserve Base.
The base is no better. The buildings are shuttered and
locked, paint is peeling and the pavement is starting to crumble.
Landscaping has been reduced to nut grass. Of course,
the closing has affected the cemetery too. It used to be
maintaned by the Navy, but now it just gets an occasional mowing by
some landscape crew. The stones are starting to fall down and
the briars are creeping ever closer. Even the historical
marker has been damaged.
Your approach to the cache can happen only one way. You
need to enter the base from the south side. It is located on
Lakecrest Drive off of 14th Street. At the end, you will come
to a guard house located at N 32 43.770 W 096 58.920.
You MUST sign in with the guard with your driver's license.
Just tell them that you are going to the cemetery and they
will let you in. On your way out, at least wave to the guard
to let him know you're leaving. Continue straight ahead past
the Army National Guard building and you will see what I mean about
the loneliness here. Even the dumpsters are rusting out.
Continue past the stop sign and it will appear that the road
has run out in a parking lot. Look to your left and you will
see a road that goes around one of those dumpsters and leads to the
flight control tower; itself an erie thing. Park in the
parking lot past the tower and the cemetery is in front of you.
Disregard the sign, I have the OK.
The cemetery sits on a small hill or rise between the lake and
the runway. All you can see or hear is silence and the wind.
Most of the people here died from the big smallpox epidemic
of the early 1900s. Many of them children. Take the
time to read the historical marker and some of the stones like the
Wolfenbergers or the Coxes. Maybe it's just me, but the whole
thing - the empty buildings, the closed base, the forgotten
cemetery with a made-up name - just seemed to give me a sense that
time had just passed all of this by and it would soon be forgotten.
Time doesn't just fly, it's the great equalizer.
Prime Suspect was FTF
and earns Zeke's Seal of Approval!
