The choice of cremation gains in popularity, with personally attuned rituals

You can be scattered at sea, tilled into your garden or transformed into fish habitat. You can be loaded into shotgun shells and shot skyward at deer camp, pressed into a gem for a relative’s ring, and even fired into space on a rocket.

In the case of Wayne Maxson, the former Jacksonville Cemetery sexton got one last procession through his beloved cemetery, then was passed among family members before his remains were buried, one trowel scoop at a time, atop his wife’s casket as was his wish.

"We tried to make the symbolism elaborate for him, respectfully sending him off," says Sharon Armstrong, a 45-year-old Medford resident and one of Maxson’s granddaughters. "It was nice and simple, but everything we did had memories in it for all of us."

Those who yearn for more than an urn have more options than ever in the growing business of what to do with the remains of cremated people, and Oregonians are some of the busiest in America at saying goodbye with rituals involving cremated remains.

About 60 percent of those who die annually in Oregon end up cremated, more than twice the national average and the fourth-highest rate among the 50 states, according to cremation industry surveys.

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About a quarter of those cremated nationwide have their remains scattered anywhere from "scatter gardens" at local cemeteries to their favorite mountain, pasture or river.

Others end up in keepsakes now ranging from jewelry to clocks to picture frames and even wooden duck decoys.

About 40 percent are entombed at cemeteries sporting elaborate columbariums with niches holding the remains, and more than a third go home in urns ranging from cardboard boxes to pieces of art.

"Twenty years ago, it was square boxes, and now you hardly see any of those," says Jack Springer, executive director of the Chicago-based trade organization Cremation Association of North America.

"Now, you can have remains put into rockets, made into arty paperweights or put into a balloon that flies 35,000 feet up before it breaks and scatters (remains) into the winds."

Local lawyers say about 40 percent of Southern Oregonians now are spelling out how they want their remains handled, often listing the details while preparing their wills.

"It appeals to the baby boomers’ idea of designing and doing what they want to do," Springer says.

Elizabeth Beals certainly did. Before her death in May 2003 at age 90, she chose cremation and requested no memorial or funeral service.

"She even wrote her own obit," says her son, Art Beals of Gold Hill.

He later shipped his mother’s ashes to Maine so they could be scattered in the Bay of Maine. It was where Carroll, her husband of 54 years, had his remains scattered in 1986.

"That was her wish," Art Beals says. "She just wanted to be with him."

The cremation process results in up to 8 pounds of what technically are not ashes. They are a sand-like collection of non-toxic cremated remains — "cremains," as they’re called in the industry — and you can pretty much do what you want with them here.

In Oregon, the law is generally silent on where people can keep or scatter remains.

States like California require scattering permits. In Oregon, you need permission only if you scatter on someone else’s land. Short of that, you face little more than a potential littering ticket.

"In a technical sense, you could apply the definition of (illegal) dumping," says David Koach, executive director of the Oregon Mortuary and Cemetery Board. "But I don’t think any of those laws were meant to ban granddad’s ashes getting spread along Camp Creek."

All you need to do is spell out your wishes and cover the roughly $1,200 cost of an average cremation.

Sometimes, the ritual of scattering remains doesn’t go as smoothly as planned.

When his father died in 1986, Art Beals went to fulfill his father’s wishes by dispersing the remains in the Bay of Maine. He rode a lobster boat in rough bay waters. With legs braced against the transom, he dropped the remains overboard, expecting them to scatter.

"They just went plop," he says. "There was a great big gray cloud in the water.

"It was weird. You think of scattering the ashes as something romantic, but it wasn’t romantic at all."

Funeral homes and crematories do not recommend scattering, but those who do scatter remains should consider keeping at least some of them as a concrete memory.

"How do you have a memory when you throw somebody out?" Springer says. "People regret that they didn’t keep some of it."

For Maxson’s family, the rituals ended without any regrets.

After placing the urn in the grave atop Maxson’s wife’s casket — "my sister and I had a laugh about that," Armstrong says — family members lined up, oldest to youngest, so each could drop a trowel of dirt into the hole.

When it was over, Richard Shields, whom Maxson had trained as his replacement, placed the last trowel of dirt in the hole. He kept the trowel.

"When it was over and done with, we felt really good, as a family, about what we did," says Armstrong. "It was a good use of the day."

CREMATION STATISTCS

According to the Cremation Association of North America, cremation rates are highest in the West, lowest in the South.

u Highest cremation rates by state in 2002: Hawaii at 61 percent, followed by Nevada at60.7 percent, Washington at 60.6 percent and Oregon at 59 percent.

u State with lowest cremation rate in 2002: Alabama at 4.4 percent.

u National cremation rate in 2002: 27 percent.

u National ratein 1982: 11.79 percent.

u Estimated national cremation rate in 2010: 36 percent.

u Estimated Oregon cremation rate in 2010: more than 65 percent.

u Crematories nationwide:About 18,700.

u Average cremation cost: About $1,200 nationwide.

u Average retail cost of an urn: About $250.

Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail mfreeman@mailtribune.com