High Cross Monument Co.

WHAT MAKES OUR Celtic carving truly UNIQUE
and why that could be important to you

You may be wondering why people and churches from all over the U.S. and Canada have chosen High Cross Monument Co. to make their memorials. The answer is simple, if a bit surprising. Most monument companies deal with customers from within a small trading area. There is not enough demand for memorials with traditional Celtic designwork within anyone's trading area to justify the great amount of time and effort required to learn how to layout and carve it properly. It is simply not worth their time. It is just not what they do.

There are about a half a dozen categories of Celtic designwork. They are all geometric in nature and very difficult to work with. The art is in selecting the right design for the space available, one that fills the space attractively. Once the layout of the design has been created, the next challenge is the actual carving. We have received many calls over the years from other monument builders who have set our work. They ask "How did you do that"? They know their carving techniques could not have produced the high-quality carving we offer. 

We have developed our own techniques to make Celtic designwork look as it should. We sculpt each cord intersection in knotwork patterns to make the cords appear to flow over-and-under, for a three dimensional appearance. Rather than use nondurable paints to temporarily enhance contrast as is commonly done, we use a process known as "bluing and whitening" where the recessed areas of the carving is permanently darkened to make designwork and lettering really stand out. Our goal is always to make memorials that will look as good hundreds of years from now as they do today. 

Finally, if you encounter a local salesperson, hungry for a sale, who assures you that "they can do anything", make sure you insist on seeing all the examples of memorials they have made with traditional Celtic designwork and compare them to ours.

How we got started

People frequently ask me how I got into this business. Well, it all started back in the early 80's when I began digging into my ancestral roots and came across pictures of the beautiful ancient Celtic crosses. I realized that a Celtic cross was what I would want for my cemetery memorial. Then I began to think about what it might take to make one. I knew that there were hundreds of thousands of others all across the country who were proud their Celtic roots. I felt perhaps many of them might also find it meaningful to have Celtic designwork on their memorial. I also thought that many churches might like to have a fine Celtic cross on their grounds. But, I convinced myself that it was a foolish dream and that no one would want one but me.

However, it was a dream that would not go away. By June of 1992, after working for many years in financial data processing, I had reached a point where I was determined that I would never again work for anyone else if I had the choice. So, I took a huge leap of faith and decided that I would try to make my dream a reality.

Sure, there were a few minor hurdles to be overcome. I didn't know anything about the monument business. I didn't know how to carve stone. I didn't even have a place to set up a shop. This is where what I believe was a bit of divine intervention came into play on the way to achieving the "American Dream"! It was uncanny how I managed to get through to the right people, at the right time, with the right questions to learn everything I needed to know to get things started. The start up process proved to be long, hard and expensive. But after a mere nine months of arduous work I sold my first memorial!

Over the last 24 years we have created a wide-ranging portfolio of work. High Cross Monument Co. is now known in the monument industry as the best source in the country for memorials with traditional Celtic designwork.

I consider myself extremely fortunate. I truly love what I do for a living. Remember, "You can't do what you can't imagine, so imagine!"

If you like the memorials you see here I hope you will give us a call. We would welcome the chance to build a truly unique memorial for you or a loved one.

John W. Scott, AICA - Owner