Lying just 12 miles from the Rio Grande and Mexico, Terlingua, Texas can easily be mistaken for an abandoned movie set dotted with a landscape of decaying buildings, fossils, and other pictureque ruins. But in reality, Terlingua was once the home of the Chisos Mining Company and a "real" mining town. Unfortunately the thriving cinnabar mining operation disappeared when the market for quick-silver (mercury) crashed. By 1942 the mines and town was adandoned, and today, lives as a great tourist destination.

Within walking distance of all many of the ruins is the Terlingua Cemetery. Probably one of the country's most photographed cemetery in the country, the historic cemetery is populated with modest crosses, simple stonework, small grottoes, fork-art diplays and many other hand-made embellishments marking the final resting spots of miners suffering from "salivation," a form of mercury poisoning. With the first grave dated back to 1903, the year mercury production in Terlingua began, the historic burial spot offers a glance into the region's past.