Not far from bustling Austin, Texas in quiet Cedar Creek, is a very special place where loved ones can be buried among the wildflowers that Texas is so well known for. Eloise Woods Community Natural Burial Park is a serene spot where “green burials” for both people and pets take place.
A grave site at Eloise Woods. (Photo via The Houston Chronicle)
As far as cemeteries go, the park is relatively small at 10 acres, but its portfolio of services offers a big punch for those in search of natural options to traditional burial. Families can opt to hand-dig their loved one’s burial site, be buried with their pet, or scatter ashes at the Soaring Hawk Garden. No embalming is allowed and only flat field stones are used to mark the graves. Prices are well below those for traditional cemeteries and infants are plots for infants are provided at no cost.
Ellen McDonald, the park’s owner, named the Burial Park for her grandmother, Eloise Brown Sutin. Ms. Sutin died at an early age while collecting rocks for her garden. While McDonald didn’t know her grandmother, she believes she is honoring her each time she lays a stone marker in the cemetery.
Eloise Woods Community Natural Burial Park was established in the fall of 2010 and is privately owned by Ellie’s Green Burials, LLC. Ellen Macdonald owns and manages the park. Ellen would like to share her vision of a beautiful woodland burial ground with others in the Austin Community. She named the park after her grandmother, Eloise Brown Sutin… Read more
Photo via The Houston Chronicle.
More about Eloise Woods
- Eloise Woods Website
- Touring Eloise Woods, the natural burial park that gives Austin environmentalists something to smile about
- At Rest in the Fields: Celebrating childhood’s end at Eloise Woods
- The Business of Death: Funeral Directors’ Convention in San Antonio
- All-Natural Cemetery near Austin s no coffins or chemicals.
