Are you protected from having your body exhumed by a subsequent owner?
I’m not familiar with the details of the law - but it’s a permitted use in the unorganized territories (towns have their own set of regulations and this may not be permitted in the town the OP lives in) - I would imagine the permitting process would include things such as deed notices and covenants that would protect the area of concern against future…disturbances?
We do have a fair number of small, family cemeteries in this state - some are right near roadways and there are only a few grave markers - usually older graves - obviously the more modern approach is the regular graveyard. I should look up my town’s ordinances on this…
OK - here’s the state law on family graveyards, because I know everyone wants to know:
"Family Burial Grounds
Under 13 M.R.S. § 1142 when a person appropriates for a family burying ground a piece of land containing not more than 1/4 of an acre, causes a description of it to be recorded in the registry of deeds of the same county or by the clerk of the town where it is situated and substantially marks the bounds of the burying ground or encloses it with a fence, it is exempt from attachment and execution. As long as a family burying ground meets these criteria, they are allowed with no further licensing or registration requirements (absent local ordinances)."
Its’ good to read up on these laws before burying your loved one out back… you wouldn’t want to make a grave mistake…
What a beautiful property.
I wouldn’t take it down, until there came a time when I could be assured that no one was visiting it. It may be tacky, but the sentiment behind it is most certainly not. What a tragedy. (I might even place a bench out there to give the parents some place to grieve their lost child and mother.)
I like that you’re not doing anything right away. I’d wait awhile until I got to know the townspeople better. Chances are you’ll make a friend who can give you some suggestions on how to handle this without ruffling feathers or hurting feelings.
Good luck to you.
Exactly. 
The state game warden told us we could remove the beavers and their dam, and referred us to a liscensed removal expert to handle the operation. Apparently Maine’s beaver population has gotten a bit out of hand in the past few years.
I’m curious how you’d have felt if:
You were unaware such a site existed on your property. The actual death was a couple of centuries old, and you just happened upon something akin to a low stone wall topped with black wrought iron, containing a crumbling gothic memorial, weedy and terribly overgrown.
Would your feeling be the same toward removing it?
It would be a completely different situation, for one thing it may be a protected monument (Listed, in UK parlance), and for another stone walls and wrought iron implies some craftsmanship.
What we’re discussing here is a bit of concrete and some painted metal decorated with happy meal gifts and deflated balloons.
At the very least, maybe you could ask them not to leave “gifts” at the site? I don’t think that would be too much to ask. Or say you would prefer that people only put flowers there.
This.
I’m curious, for those who think we would be bad people for taking it down, where they would draw the line for too much. Would a 20’ tall cross be over the line? What if the deceased really loved beer and the cross was made of bud light cans? Is there any point where it becomes too tacky? And do you feel like the visitors to the memorial have any responsibility to remove old balloons and various other trash? Just curious.
While it’s very sad that a couple of people died there, of course, that does NOT give the surviving family any right to trespass on your land. Nor does it give the survivors any right to erect a memorial and keep adding to it.
I think that you need to contact the family and let them know that this memorial is on your property, that you don’t want anyone going on your property without you knowing about it, and that you are concerned that people are making treks to a place which seems to be dangerous. Also mention that the memorial needs to be moved, and when would they like to move it? It’s probably better to avoid accusations of trespassing.
I don’t see that YOU are responsible for keeping the memorial on YOUR property. Legally, you can probably remove it right now. However, it’s probably better to try to get the survivors involved in the process, so that they can take that tacky thing and put it on their own property. I’ve seen tackier things, but the contrast between this memorial and the setting is extreme.
Whoa…beep beep beep…back up the “oh shit truck” right now.
You are not insured at the moment? And are contemplating do something that plenty of people are saying could royally piss of somebody/the locals?
I wouldn’t say a word or even ask any questions of the locals/anybody about this cross thing now. Hell, I’d pretend I hadn’t even noticed it or realized it was actually on my property till I actually got insurance. I’d even ask the mods to delete this thread if they could/would for that matter.
Rural property? Uninsured? Decent probability of pissing of the local(s)?
Gawd what a recipe for a financial disaster.
Franky I’m surprised your bank has allowed you to get a mortgage without house insurance - unless you paid cash for the house - how does this work?
I have a friend who was paying very high amounts for house insurance because it was being renovated and it was taking longer than expected (they were doing it themselves) - but they damn sure had to have the insurance.
We paid cash.
From other posts it looks like the accident happened in April of this year. The memorial is only around six months old and it is still being visited. All of this happened when the bank owned the house and no owners were resident or visiting. The people who put up the memorial may not have known that it was private property.
This would be totally fucking awesome. And yes, I am a Maine native, why do you ask?
And I’m not saying you are a bad person for not liking the cross, I’m saying you should approach this with far more care and tact than you seem to be. And the response of your new neighbors may be negative - if you care.
That would be well over the line. If the deceased really loved beer, a memorial having anything to do with Bud Light would be a desecration of the memory of the deceased. 
I do care, I’m just asking for opinions here. Nothing has been done or mentioned to the neighbors and nothing is likely to be done for a while. I think the situation is interesting and this thread has given us a lot of things to think about. We are approaching the issue with care, I promise. I don’t see how we can be tactless by doing and saying nothing, which is exactly what had been done thus far.
If I’ve found the correct story, it happened in Apr 2007. Apr 2012 was the 5yr mark and Apr 2013 will be 6yr mark.
Ah, thanks. I thought someone said differently earlier. My apologies.
In that case ignore most of my earlier post. The previous owners must have known about it in that case. From the Olympics Spongebob, someone did visit the site in the last few months.
That looks like a pretty elaborate memorial. Somebody spent money on it. You sure there isn’t an easement for that creek bank?
I’d remove the balloons and obvious trash. Repaint the cross.
After a few years it could be quietly removed.