Cemetery Island is an instance of a cemetery isolated by rising waters in the middle of a large lake.
Cemetery Island is located above Watts Bar Dam. When the TVA system of dams caused waters to rise, more than 500 cemeteries were relocated. Cemeteries that were above the flood plane and burial sites that families did not want moved were left where they originally stood. Cemetery Island, where Leuty ancestors are buried, is an instance of a cemetery isolated in the middle of a large lake.
Nestled within the Lookout Mountain foothills, Forest Hills Cemetery is easily one of the most interesting cemeteries in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Whenever I am in Chattanooga, I love to visit Forest Hills and wander through the older sections of the cemetery.
From the only female to ever strike out Babe Ruth to leaders of local industries dating back to the early years of Chattanooga’s industrial age, Forest Hills resident list is long and varied.
The rolling terrain that helps give Forest Hills its name.
Truly exhibiting the rolling terrain that makes Chattanooga such a scenic city, Forest Hills’ landscape varies between sections of flat areas populated by flush mounted grave markers to steep inclines with aging monuments standing stalwart overlooking historic St. Elmo 7 miles outside of the city.
Many notable Chattanoogans are buried in Forest Hills Cemetery.
John T. Wilder was a Union Colonel during the U.S. Civil War. On September 18, 1863 Wilder masterfully defended Chickamauga Creek to prevent Confederate Soldiers from flanking the Union Army. This action helped secure the Union position on that day. Wilder later battled in Atlanta and eventually returned to Chattanooga to begin a foundry. He died in 1917. Wilder Tower was build on the grounds of Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.
On April 2, 1931 17 year old Jackie Mitchell struck out famous Baseball legend Babe Ruth during a Chattanooga Lookouts game against the New York Yankees in Chattanooga. The next batter was Lou Gehrig who swung and missed three times for her second strike out in a row. Jackie continued to play professionally but baseball officials cancelled her contract and declared women unfit to play baseball.
Longtime President and tireless promoter of the Chattanooga Lookouts Baseball Team Joe Engle was a fixture in Chattanooga. This southpaw pitcher came to Chattanooga in 1929 and ran a successful franchise operation with oddball promotions. Chattanooga’s famous Engle Stadium was named after Joe who died in 1969.
Price Chapel Cemetery (Cemetary) is defined by an overwhemlingly striking tree which greets (almost ominously so) visitors to this small cemetery located between Cleveland Tennessee and Chattanooga Tennessee.
Price Chapel Cemetery (Cemetary)
Many cemeteries we visit are defined by a single tombstone. A large obelisk, ornate carving on a single granite monolith, or a magnificient white bronze erection often is the defining feature in a cemetery and makes us say “This tombstone defines the cemetery.”
However, Price Chapel Cemetery (Cemetary) is defined by an overwhemlingly striking tree which greets (almost ominously so) visitors to this small cemetery located between Cleveland Tennessee and Chattanooga Tennessee.
Markers date back to the mid 1800’s to a time in Bradley County when the coming Civil War was not even a rumor. Unfortunately, progress is never ceasing and the area immediately surrounding Price Chapel is becoming overrun with car dealers and movie theaters.
The Tree Defines the Cemetery – Price Chapel Cemetery
Following a keen interest in cemeteries The Cemetery Detective has studied burying grounds from Hawaii to Maine, Europe, and throughout the United Kingdom. He instructs entrepreneurs how to start their own grave care businesses through his website: www.GraveCareBusiness.com
Charleston’s Cumberland Presbyterian Cemetery is located on a slope nestled amongst rolling Tennessee hill on the extreme northeast Bradley County border less than 400 meters from the Hiawassee River.
Charleston Cumberland Presbyterian Cemetery
The spring storms and tornados of 2011 devastated many areas of southeast Tennessee. As I scoured the Tennessee countryside on an unusually warm winter’s day cloud swirls screamed past and I wondered if I were soon to be caught in another spate of southern twisters. Charleston’s Cumberland Presbyterian Cemetery is located on a slope nestled among rolling Tennessee hills on the extreme northeast Bradley County border less than 400 meters from the Hiawassee River.
I barely braved the torrents of rain sheeting toward the ground at 45 degree angles long enough to snap a few photographs. This is such a beautiful area of Tennessee, I wish I could have wandered around longer.
Name: Price Cemetery
Known As: Cloud Cemetery
State: Tennessee
County: Polk County
Approximate Coordinates: N35 06.790 W84 34.592
Notable Residents: George Cloud
My father’s friend requested that I locate the old “Cloud” Cemetery near her (and my father’s) birthplace. It took me a few days to realize that Cloud Cemetery’s official name is Price Cemetery.
Ray Cemetery outside of Chattanooga Tennessee is an abandoned and uncared for cemetery with field stones and unmarked grave sites.
Ray Cemetery. Harrison, Tennessee. An old, forgotten, and neglected cemetery.
Name: Ray Cemetery
State: Tennessee
Ray Cemetery is currently my favorite type of cemetery to discover. I found this cemetery purely by using an old topo map and my trusty Garmin GPS. Ray Cemetery is located on an old piece of farmland. The cemetery is completely neglected and largely forgotten. I knocked on the door of a couple of farm houses before I found a man who remembered the cemetery from when he was a boy. He told me no one had been on that part of the farm in well over 15 years. Though he did not offer to show me around, he welcomed me to walk through his property and pointed the way.
Rarely do I find such overgrown cemeteries. Ray Cemetery is in a low-lying area of 200 year old farmland. This particular area is frequently muddy from rain runoff and heavy vegetation means nature is gradually reclaiming the land.
The cemetery was difficult to find in such heavy undergrowth and I was only able to find the cemetery when my research assistant point out a barely visible cattle trail leading into otherwise impenetrable thickets.
We noticed haphazardly placed field stones that we mistook for simple rocks lying on the ground. Only after noticing an engraved tombstone did we realize that the field stones were marking gravesites. Many plots were caved in and there were still many more (we assume) unmarked grave sites.
Beck Cemetery in Chattanooga Tennessee contains a single memorial marker dedicated to all those who are known to be buried within the cemetery.
Beck Cemetery – Chattanooga Tennessee
Engulfed by an active golf course and residing adjecent to green Number 3, Beck Cemetery in Chattanooga Tennessee risked being forgotten forever.
Beck Cemetery dates back at least to the mid-1800’s when early settlers of Chattanooga who were involved in sawmills, passenger ferries, quarries, and produce trading founded this plot of land as a family cemetery. Shortly after World War II the cemetery was damaged. It laid neglected for decades until two local residents began independent efforts to rehabilitate the cemetery and pay homage to those buried there.
Beck Cemetery contains a single memorial marker dedicated to all those who are known to be buried within the cemetery.
Chattanooga Memorial Park Cemetery is a large, sprawling cemetery located within the town of Red Bank, Tennessee.
Chattanooga Memorial Park Cemetery
Name: Chattanooga Memorial Park Cemetery
State: Tennessee
Coordinates: 35 05’39.87N 85 18’07.01W
Chattanooga Memorial Park Cemetery is a large, sprawling cemetery located within the town of Red Bank, Tennessee. Red Bank lies entirely within Hamilton County, Tennessee and immediately adjecent to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Memorial Park is a rolling
Chattanooga Memorial Park Cemetery is one of my first experiments using GPS and Google Earth to map locations of individual grave sites within a cemetery.
I have been experimenting with using my GPS to record individual gravesites and take pictures of the headstones. Using a program called Google Earth I have been able to import the photographs and the GPS coordinates to give a visual representation of the location of each grave site.
This data is saved as a .kml (Keyhole Markup Language) file. To see the .kml file of the Memorial Park Cemetery, please install Google Earth and then download this file. This is an experiment only. Memorial Park Cemetery Map
Grave sites within Aetna Cemetery date back to the 1860’s and are marked with crude hand-carved tombstones.
Name: Aetna Cemetery
State: Tennessee
Aetna Cemetery is a small volunteer maintained cemetery located atop Aetna Mountain just outside Haletown, Tennessee.
The grave sites within Aetna Cemetery date back to the 1860’s and are marked with crude hand-carved tombstones.
I love hand carved grave markers. They show the personality not only of the carver and the individual they are carved for but also for the community at large. I believe hand carved tombstones are treasures of the community and time from which they were made. Hand carved tombstones are in abundance in Aetna Cemetery.
Aetna Cemetery will probably never be described as “beautiful” but the rugged rural nature of this cemetery gives it a character hard to find in modern, landscaped, and perfectly manicured cemeteries. I don’t often feel a presence of the people who are buried in cemeteries I explore. However, when I visited Aetna Cemetery, I felt like I was not only observing burial sites but also the burials themselves. I felt the heartbreak of rural mountain people as they buried their sons, daughters, Mothers, and Fathers during driving rains of Tennessee Novembers and the blistering heat of an outdoor funeral in the South during the height of summer.
