Highland Cemetery’s Gate Has Been Closed For Two Whole Years

If you're keeping count, we've crossed the two-year mark of disrepair at Lawton's Highland Cemetery.

You may or may not remember there was an incident with a trash truck trying to squeeze through the main gate. Not only did the square peg not fit in the round hole, but the historic gate also suffered enough structural damage to be a nuisance and danger to anyone under it.

Built way back in the 1930s, it's understandable that people would want to see things restored rather than torn down and rebuilt, but as the project turns two, I'm sure most people would opt for any kind of progress at the point, new or restoration-wise.

Of course, IF the process of restoration ever does start, it's hard to tell how it's going to go. If you get a good enough look at the gateway as it sits, it really does need to be taken down. It's structurally beyond repair, or at least it looks that way.

It's not all bad though, taking the whole thing down... there are companies that will come out, number each individual stone, map it out and dismantle everything. At that point they'll clean all the original stones up and set everything back in place as if it never met a trash truck.

Whatever the city decides to do with this problematic eyesore it needs to see some progress soon. In a time when the city council is pushing a plan to clean up Lawton through lawncare and anti-littering campaigns, seeing the crumbling mess of a gate surrounded by orange safety cones and fencing sure doesn't help their "beautify Lawton" agenda.