By BETH QUINN

TALENT -- For Yvonne Reynolds, the sun-dappled knoll below Anderson Butte is a place where the circle of life finds completion.

"Just stand in a cemetery or walk around -- it's the overwhelming sense of life. All its aspects are there, and yet what a tremendous peace," the Talent historian says. "That's where time meets itself, really. Right there."

Like most of Jackson County's pioneer graveyards, Stearns Cemetery is neither mossy nor melancholy. Nature is the groundskeeper of the pioneer graves. Time may have tilted the weathered stones off true, but spring brings a bounty of new life in wildflowers and rabbits. The hardy souls who trekked across the Plains have no need for manicured lawns and scrubbed stones.

"You get a much greater sense of reality in one of those small cemeteries," Reynolds says.

Small cemeteries and their realities are the subject of the current exhibit at the Talent Historical Society. The display of mourning accessories includes the black parasol of a bereaved widow, a brooch woven from the deceased's hair and an elaborately inscribed memorial card.

Such mementos helped the grieving heal from their losses, says museum director Holly Hertel.

"Although some of the mourning garb and the customs may have been excessive, I think there was a real good use for some of them,'' she says.

Not until World War I did the custom of wearing black for a year finally pass away.

"Too many men were killed, and how do you mourn every single one of them and continue to wear black," Hertel explains.

These days the pioneer graves are visited mostly by historians and genealogists seeking clues to the past, but for others the small cemeteries offer something more.

"There's a mystery in life and death, and yet they walk hand in hand. You just can never separate the two," Reynolds says. "That kind of mystery also draws people in."

Jackson County's oldest cemeteries are rural gems that sparkle with wildflowers in spring and offer shady haven in summer:

• Talent's Stearns Cemetery dates from 1857. Find it on Anderson Creek Road.

• Eagle Point's Antelope Cemetery dates from 1858. Find it on Riley Road.

• Jacksonville's Pioneer Cemetery dates from 1859. Find it on North Oregon Street.

• The Applegate's Missouri Flat Cemetery dates from 1864. Find it on North Applegate Road.

• Phoenix's Pioneer Cemetery dates from 1874, with the oldest graves from 1857 moved to the site. Find it on Church Street.

The Talent Historical Society's exhibit, "Cemeteries: Windows to the Past," runs through the end of May at the Talent Community Hall, 206 E. Main St.