That’s another good point. Is this an “attractive nuisance” (is that the correct term?) where if someone hurts themselves going to look at it, the property owner is liable. I’d ask your insurer about that. If they say that it is, you can honestly say that your insurance carrier insisted that you remove it.
Liability, indeed. And, heaven forbid, what if more people perished in that dangerously soggy area?
The mourning and shrine-building needs to be done where the poor dears are buried, not on your private property.
Well yes, the 4th picture, which was added after my post, certainly looks like a creek. The OP said the memorial was “in the middle of the creek” so you really can’t blame someone for expecting to see a big cross erected in the middle of a flowing body of water now can you. More importantly, to me it looks to be clearly on her land, if a bit soggy thanks to the beavers.
At which point you could segue smoothly into a discussion about planting a lovely tree in the public park or on the local elementary school property in memory the lost loved ones.
I’m wondering if the bench doesn’t fall into the “attractive nuisance” category also. While you and your family might enjoy the bench beside the creek, it, too, could draw others to “the spot.” The bench may have to go too.
That scene has kind of an icky “Blair Witch” feel to it.
I think you should plant a circle of lilac bushes around the memorial–like maybe 8 or 10. It’d be prettier to look at, would completely hide the shrine in a year or two, and if anyone takes note you can say you were just enhancing the scene–giving it a sense of privacy & beauty & serenity or something. Then of course, you’d tell 'em to git off’n your land.
zomg too soon…
That link works for me.
If you do take it down and someone complains, tell them the beavers did it.
Or how about offering the chance for the builders to arrange to have it carted off in one piece and put in their yard?
I love the attractive nuisance thing. It is completely plausible, we aren’t the bad guys, and we didn’t call in the bad guys. I think we will track down the next of kin, express our condolences, and let them know that the insurance company has given us 30 days to remove the memorial. We will offer to plant a fruit tree with a plaque in its stead.
Good idea.. But tell them, that the fruit tree/plaque will have to be someplace else, such as right by the road, for insurance purposes.
You probably don’t want to encourage visitors to come looking for the tree and plaque on your property.
I just saw the photos. Good god, what an eyesore. I wish I had something constructive to add to the thread, but I think the good ideas have already been offered.
Glad to see I wasn’t the only one who recognized the Spongebob toy XD I also knew the memorial had been visited recently because of it.
Sorry picassa demands I have a google based account and sign in with it. Way to invasive for me to just look at pictures.
Let me say this. The thing isn’t bothering you most likely. Its probably not any actual danger to anyone. Yeah, you can work towards getting rid of it. But I would personally go damn slow and careful because IMO the upsides of getting rid of it are rather minor, and the downsides of “doing it wrong” and royally pissing off some people are pretty high.
Its the social equivalent of buying a 100 dollar lottery ticket where you might win 10 dollars.
I googled, too, and the article I read said that a neighbor tried to save them, but the current was too strong. He suffered hypothermia. I wonder if that might have been the former owner of the property.
I was thinking that too. He probably heard the screams.
It sure explained why the little cross was attached to one arm of the big white cross.
I’d knock the nick nacks off and see if anyone comes to put them back up. (A deer of any sort of wildlife could have knocked them off.) That will give you an idea of if there are still visitors who pay attention to it. If they aren’t replaced to their spots over the next year, then you could pretty much assume it’s abandoned.
If you’re not in a great hurry… We have multi-flora roses here that grow everywhere. I’d relocate some of them (or a similar fast growing plant) that would hide the cross from the road. If no one clears it out, then by the second summer, no one will be able to tell if you’ve taken it down or not.
I would also place No Trespassing signs along the property line.
Another option… find out who the family are, tell them that you’re putting up a perimeter fence on the property because you want to raise goats or cows or something and ask them if they would like to move the memorial off the property before the fence is put in. Tell them that you intend to fence it next summer, so they have until… say end of July… to move the memorial and you’d be glad to help them if they need it.
To be perfectly honest, and I know I’m going against the grain in the thread here, I think you should leave it.
Why? Well, you said it in earlier. You cannot even see this from your house.
From the pictures it’s pretty obvious that you are not exactly using that part of your property much, it’s basically a wilderness.
Even ignoring anything about what you ought to do, or what you ought not do, just from a purely utilitarian perspective you will derive very little pleasure indeed from removing this thing. But you will likely be causing enormous suffering.
I think the fact that you cannot discuss this with the family behind it makes that clear. It’s basically between you and them. That you feel unable to even broach the subject shows that their pain at having it removed is far worse than anything you may be “suffering” from having it there.
Finally, you surely knew about this thing being there when you bought the property? If so, then what did you plan to do at the time? If not, then it must be a tiny incidental thing of no relevance whatsoever, even more so than I said above.
Are you a Benthamite then?
How do you know Renee won’t derive a greater amount of pleasure from removing the memorial than the suffering caused by its removal?
How do you know, that for instance, Renee doesn’t lay awake at night worrying about the liability implications for having the memorial on her property, or that the memorial will cause damage to her property when the creek is returned to its pre-beaver attack state?
How can you possibly know enough about the situation to perform a utilitarian calculation and then state it with the confidence that you do?
Here is a picture of a simple tree shaping. It takes time, but you can plant two fast growing trees and get the effect rather quickly. http://www.myunusual.com/Pix/Hobbies%20pix/trees/trees%20knot%2006.jpg
You can google “Tree Shaping” to see other options. But that would be a cool replacement.
I personally am on the side of not wanting strangers on the property, especially in an area that is boggy and could be dangerous.
It looks less weathered than I expected, and I agree the toys etc don’t seem to have been there for four years unattended. Maybe you could put a note on it and say you’ve moved in and now own the property and please stop by the house to talk about relocating your private memorial to a place you’ll be able to visit regularly for the long term. If the house has been vacant for years they may have come to think of it as public property, and you can gently remind them that that’s no longer the case.