Weimar Trails, Graves and the Sabbath

In this time of Covid restrictions I have been enjoying the runs with friends and the discovery of new trails in interesting places.  One Sunday at the end of February, Mary Ann showed me a new trail up in her part of the world, Auburn.  It was in Weimar which is a small settlement a few miles east of Auburn on I-80.  I have passed it thousands of times but never really taken the time to look around. 

Weimar which was given its name by the descendants of the founder of the town who came from the Weimar area of Germany was the home of the Weimar Sanatarium which is now the Weimar Institute, now owned by the Seventh Day Adventist Church.   At the entry to the Institute you can gain access to the trails of the area.  The wooded hilly trails are wonderful examples of Sierra Foothill trails - shady for the most part, single track and primarily for walkers and runners - no mountain bikers (that we saw).  

We ran on the Frontier Trail, a trail that runs around the perimeter of the area.  It winds up and down through the forested hills and eventually it loops back to the Institute where it passes through an old cemetery.  A large cemetery with around 1500 graves spread out across the hillside in orderly rows.  Apart from three or four graves that were named and had more modern stone markers all were simple wooden plaques identified only by a number. 

The Weimar Sanatorium was built to provide treatment and isolation for poor and indigent tuberculosis patients in the early part of the 20th century.  TB was quite the scourge in its day being much worse than say the AIDs epidemic in our later time period.  It was contagious so patients needed to be isolated in specific TB hospitals such as the one at Weimar.  

This being a hospital for indigent patients, when they died they often did not have the funds to take care of the burial so they were buried in simple graves behind the hospital.  I guess this is what you would call a Potter's Field.

In the 1950's and later better treatments for TB were found and the need for a specialist isolation hospital was no longer required.  The hospital changed to a more general health center for the community until in 1972 it was closed.  It served as a relocation center for Vietnamese refugees for a while before it was purchased by the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

At the end of our run as we entered the old hospital area we came across some 30 or more granite boulders each with polished surfaces bearing inscriptions.  They were obviously part of a work in progress for the Seventh Day Adventists.  Most of the inscriptions dealt with the Sabbath and honoring the Sabbath and what happens when you don't honor the Sabbath.  With so many boulders, it is obviously going to be quite a large installation and it is being done at no small cost.  It left me wondering why so many (nearly all in fact) of the inscriptions dealt with the Sabbath day.  Surely their religion has a bit more to offer us than just warnings about resting on the Sabbath, which is Saturday in their religion.  

As a retired person I am pretty much a Seven Day Adventist myself.

Finally for a bit more distance at the end of the run we ran along the irrigation canal.  There is a network of these canals throughout the area, delivering water to rural homes where they don't have piped city water.  It is significantly cheaper than drilling a lot of individual wells.  Being almost level with a nice border trail they make for a pleasant run.