Cemetery Discoveries - Page 5 of 12 - The Cemetery Detective™

Mt. Pisgah Cemetery – Cripple Creek, Colorado

The iron-worked gate welcoming you to Mt. Pisgah Cemetery includes symbology related to gold mining.

Near Pike’s Peak

I visited Colorado to climb Pikes Peak. From the town of Manitou Springs, Colorado, the Barr Trail winds 13 miles to the top of Pikes Peak with an elevation of 14,114′ msl. I LOVED this hike and I suggest anyone in good enough physical shape should make the hike at least once in their life. This was the second 14’er I’ve climbed. The first being Mt. Elbert on a different trip to Colorado. I did not feel any altitude sickness but I did feel a bit sick at the top of Pike’s Peak when I realized a bottle of Gatorade was selling for $7.

Not wishing to hike down, I took the COG Railway. Riding the railway was an adventure in itself.

Once back to the bottom, I hopped in my rented Jeep to begin exploring the countryside for a few days. Whenever I’m in unfamiliar territory with time to spare, I turn off the GPS and try my best to get lost. This strategy is made much more fun when I’m in a rented 4×4 Jeep.

Cripple Creek Colorado

A few miles outside Manitou Springs lies the town of Cripple Creek, Colorado. When I first saw the signs for Cripple Creek, I starting singing “Up On Cripple Creek” by The Band. I had always assumed the character in the song was from Cripple Creek, Colorado because he talks about getting “off this mountain.” If any song lyrics experts are reading this, please drop me a note (I’ll leave the comments open below) to tell me if I’m wrong or right.

Other than the iron gate and a static display of a Huey helicopter, the first feature I noticed was a number of graves within a small grove of Aspens.

Mt. Pisgah Cemetery

Beneath Colorado’s brilliant blue sky, symbols signifying the importance of this town’s connection to mining adorn the tree stump grave marker of Charles Huggins.

A bronze elk stands steadfast in the lush grass as if to guard the graves from the mountain lions that mush surely inhabit nearby Mt. Pisgah. As beautiful as this cemetery is, I question the use of chain link fencing to define the perimeter of family plots.

I thoroughly enjoyed strolling the grounds and looking at the views of Mt. Pisgah not too far in the distance. This view is honored by my favorite grave marker in the cemetery. It is a clear acrylic(?) grave marker which allows you to look completely through it to see the amazing landscape that surrounds Mt. Pisgah cemetery.

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Cave Hill Cemetery – Louisville, Kentucky

The grounds of Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky contain over 120,000 burials. Office staff are friendly and willing to give you directions to interesting gravesites.

A Pleasant Journey Through Cave Hill Cemetery

From the time I drove onto the grounds of Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky, I was greeted by friendly staff members willing to give directions to several of the more interesting gravestones on the property.

1) Muhammad Ali

Office workers looked at me with a knowing smile on this hot summer afternoon. They knew why I was here. It was a few days after the summer solstice. I was on my way home from a Cemetery Conference in Columbus, Ohio. Cemetery workers were perplexed that I wasn’t focused on any single grave site. I just wanted to have a good look around. Eventually, one of the office members indicated the direction to Muhammad Ali’s gravesite. Finally, I understood their confusion. “Ohhhh…”, I thought, “Muhammad Ali is buried here!” While following a seady line of cars, I easily found my way to his grave site.

Muhammed Ali died only a few weeks before my visit. Although his gravestone had yet to be placed, I visited his burial location. Since my visit, his gravestone has been placed. If you visit Cave Hill, please share your pictures of Muhammad Ali’s grave site with me.

2) Harland Sanders

Harland Sanders developed the Kentucky Fried Chicken chain of restaurants. Colonel Sanders is surrounded by family. Margaret Sanders has a most beautiful verse inscribed into her gravestone.
Watch the video below to see the inscription.

3) Harry Collins

Harry Collins is honored with a delightful grave marker designed by Barney Bright. A life-long Magician, Harry traveled the world promoting the Frito Lay Company. His grave marker perfectly describes Harry’s delightful presence.

I could easily spend hours exploring the miles of roadways in Cave Hill Cemetery. However, I was able to take in many of the sights.

The video below is a summary of my trip.

Please Enjoy this video of Cave Hill.

Kings Point Cemetery – Chattanooga, Tennessee

Kings Point Cemetery – Abandoned, Neglected, but not Forgotten

The sign on a rusty locked barricade warns of penalties for willful destruction or removal of U.S. Government property but “No Tresspassing” signs are not to be found. This service road does not appear on roadway maps. Conversely, the documented road (Pine Street) located 1/4 mile away from this location still exists on maps but no longer exists in reality.

Why has Pine Street, the main road leading into Kings Point Cemetery, vanished from reality? And, why has Kings Point Cemetery fallen into such a state of abandonment?

Kings Point Cemetery in Hamilton County, Tennessee dates back to 1830

A once prestigious cemetery containing notable figures in Chattanooga’s history, Kings Point Cemetery dates back to the mid 1800’s with some of the earliest burials from the Silvey family. As such; some local historians refer to the burial ground as Silvey Cemetery. It is on land now owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

TVA first became prominent in this immediate area in the 1930s when Chickamauga Dam was built on the Tennessee River 6 miles upriver of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Kings Point’s setting is high atop a hill overlooking Chickamauga Dam. The cemetery’s perch saved it from the fate of many other cemeteries in the area flooded by rising waters of the Tennessee River. Once the hydroelectric dam was completed in 1940, rising lake levels caused the relocation of 24 cemeteries. To TVA’s credit, the Governmental Agency prides itself on being sensitive to cultural issues such as the impact from their operations on area cemeteries.

In fact, TVA has responsibly moved more than 550 cemeteries, in total, within its jurisdictional boundaries.

Their efforts of building the dam required TVA to purchase much of the surrounding land. Kings Point was acquired in the 1930s and officially closed in 1938. According to a gravemarker survey performed in 1941, the last known burial was in 1933.
[EDIT 04/03/2018: In further research of Kingspoint Cemetery, I have found evidence of burials later than those in the survey referenced above. According to Find-A-Grave, Hugh Jackson Studdard was buried in Kingspoint Cemetery in 1946. Furthermore, Find-A-Grave references a burial as late as 1961.]

When Pine Street was placed into disuse, clear access into Kings Point Cemetery was no longer available.

Kingspoint Cemetery has since fallen into complete disrepair. With scores of sunken gravesites, toppled tombstones, and a collapsed mausoleum, extreme caution must be heeded by visitors. A thick carpet of Periwinkle obfuscates landscape contours. Voids and obstructions are not readily apparent.

Of the few epitaphs which can be read, interesting stories emerge. A stark example is that of Sam Cleage Lumpkin who was “Murdered Over a Dog Fight.”

Notable Burials

The most notable burials in Kings Point are those of the Woodward Family.

In today’s world of instant sharing of selfie pics via Facebook and Instagram, we can only imagine piling the entire family into a horse-drawn wagon for a day-long outing to have a professional photographer shoot a group picture. However, in February 1897, 10 members of the Woodward family excitedly took a family excursion. They loaded 10 family members into a wagon pulled by the family’s two horses on their way to Chattanooga for a family photograph.

At the railroad tracks near Orchard Knob Avenue, the whistles and bells of an oncoming passenger train went unheeded by the wagon driver. 24 year old George T. Woodward encouraged his horses across the tracks but not before Southern Railway Engine No. 846 barrelled into them. Bodies of the family were, reportedly, thrown as high as telegraph wires. The sole surviving family member, 3 year old Vergie Woodward, was discovered unhurt on the engine that pulled the train. The next day’s newspaper headlines read: “NINE MEMBERS OF ONE FAMILY HURLED INTO ETERNITY.”

All 9 family members killed by the tragedy are buried in Kings Point.

Can you imagine the sadness which surrounded these gravesites on this hallowed ground 120 years ago?

With the proven cultural sensitivity TVA has provided cemeteries in the past, it seems responsible to reopen Pine Street allowing free access and rehabilitation efforts to take place at Kings Point Cemetery.

As with many abandoned cemeteries I visit, Kings Point is not included in Google Maps. I’ve suggested it to their database administrators in hopes it will be added soon. That said, the location map is included below. The cemetery is located on the map at the end of Pine Street which juts off Hwy 58.

Shaw Cemetery – Red Bank, Tennessee

Shaw Cemetery AKA Red Bank Cemetery

It’s a familiar scenario. I’m driving on a road I’ve driven a hundred times before. All of a sudden, I look up and notice gravestones on a hillside. Thus is the tale of how I found this cemetery in Red Bank, Tennessee.

Cemetery Obscured By Trees

Just past Hardee’s on Morrison Springs Road heading into Red Bank, Tennessee, a small grove of trees covers a hillside behind a rental house. The property owner recently cleared scrub brush from the hillside to increase visibility around a difficult intersection. I’ve driven this road dozens of times but I’ve never known there to be a cemetery anywhere near here.

Loaded into my Garmin Nuvi GPS is a database of over 150,000 cemeteries. I use this as a backup to Google Maps and Billion Graves. This GPS file helps me locate cemeteries. Although I’ve used this system to find hundreds of cemeteries all across the United States, I’ve never known about a cemetery in this area. However, with the scrub brush cut away, I caught a glimpse of a tombstone atop the hillside. I was so unaccustomed to seeing tombstones on this stretch of land that the vision through my eyes didn’t register in my brain until I almost reached the intersection at Dayton Boulevard. “HEY!!! There’s a cemetery up there.” Spinning around, I took a right on Oakland Terrace and then a 180° left onto a small side street. There, between and behind two residences is Red Bank Cemetery (the sign says “Shaw Cemetary[sic]”).

Red Bank Cemetery (Or Is It Shaw?)

The grave sites in Red Bank Cemetery date back as early as the late 1800s though the majority are from the mid 1900s. A survey of recorded grave markers can be found on the Hamilton County Genealogical Site Red Bank is a small enclave city completely surrounded by Chattanooga, Tennessee. Being so close to Chattanooga and the Civil War battles fought in the surrounding areas, I expected to see significant markers with names of civil war veterans. However, mentions of soldiers from the Civil War were difficult to find.

The cemetery is well maintained and is apparently still in somewhat modern use with the most recent marker reading a DOD 1997.

Whether it’s known as Shaw Cemetery or Red Bank Cemetery, I’m glad the property owner cleared away the trees giving greater visibility to this grave yard.

As mentioned above, Red Bank Cemetery is not listed in the Google Maps database. As of the writing of this blog post (January 2017) I’ve submitted the location to Google and I hope it will be added soon.

Celestial Alignment Behind a 100 Year Old Gravestone

Celestial alignment behind a 100 year old gravestone.

I blithely strolled through this cemetery when I first discovered this celestial alignment.
With sun setting low on horizon this chilly autumn evening,
I was in the right place at the right time just as it kissed the horizon.
A lone sunbeam glinted perfectly through the little boy’s outstretched hand.

Grand Center Baptist Church Cemetery – Chickamauga, Georgia

In my continual study of North Georgia Cemeteries, I happened upon Grand Center Baptist Church

In my continual study of North Georgia Cemeteries, I happened upon Grand Center Baptist Church with a fenced-in cemetery directly behind the building. This cemetery confused me on three accounts.

When I first arrived at the cemetery, I pulled up Google Maps and Billion Graves to get a confirmation of the correct name and location. I’ve found many church yard cemeteries with names that are not correlated to the name of the church. According to Billion Graves, this cemetery is listed as Chickamauga Cemetery. However, I know Chickamauga Cemetery to be a much larger cemetery. Hmmmm. Why is this cemetery listed as Chickamauga Cemetery in Billion Graves? During further investigation, I found this cemetery to be omitted from Google Maps.

Is it possible this cemetery is not a nationally recognized cemetery and it only exists as a burying yard on church grounds?

The next thing that confused me was a tall chain-link enclosure right in the middle of the cemetery. What an odd location for a chain-link enclosure. Why is it here? Is it for placement of old flowers? Is it protecting a piece of land that is not to be walked on? I don’t know.

The third thing that confused me was a barely readable sign located within a family plot on the western edge of the cemetery. The sign read: “Grave Service Made By Samuel Buchanan For Family In The Deed Which Transferred This Tract To The Public As A Burial Ground.” I imagine this is a legal statement and probably has something to do with the reason this cemetery is not listed on my cemetery maps.

Overall, this was a very pleasant cemetery; well maintained with nice flowers. I wish someone would have been in the church so I could have asked a few questions. If anyone with knowledge of this cemetery has answers, please leave comments below or email me via the “contact page.”

Eastview Cemetery – Adairsville, Georgia

The parallel lines of Eastview Cemetery.

I am always fascinated with cemetery layouts.

One thing I’m always looking for is in what direction does the headstone face. It is common practice for headstones to face east with the interred’s head toward the west end of the grave. So, if the body were to rise up (as in during the time of the rapture) the body would be facing east toward the coming of Christ. This is not always the case, however, as seen in the Resaca Confederate Cemetery I visited earlier today. Many of those burials are in a circular pattern facing a large stone cross at the center of the cemetery.

Eastview Cemetery – Parallel Lines

Another pattern I observe is the divisions of sections of the cemetery. Eastview Cemetery in Adairsville Georgia has some of the most perfectly straight lines of any cemetery I’ve ever visited. Each section is approximately 50′ wide separated by a perfectly straight driveway. Funnily, though this cemetery is named “Eastview”, most all burial sites face west.

I can imaging in days-gone-by, this was a prestigious cemetery. The cemetery’s grass is well maintained despite the closeness of many of the grave markers. The majority of the grave markers are in decent condition. I found several very interesting oval tombstones. The marble obelisks show some signs of sugaring but their overall condition is good.

While I was strolling the grounds, reading the grave inscriptions, and doing some cemetery photography, I saw several families visiting, placing grave flowers, and visiting with their departed loved-ones.

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Confederate Cemetery – Resaca, Georgia

Confederate survivors of the Battle of Resaca; beaten, tired, and on the move, had no time to give proper burial to their brothers-in-arms.

A Nation At War

Fierce and Bloody Battles took place May 13 – 15, 1864 on the battlegrounds near the town of Resaca, Georgia. The Confederate survivors of the Battle of Resaca; beaten, tired, and on the move, had no time to give proper burial to their brothers-in-arms. Crudely dug shallow graves were not sufficient to cover the war dead. But those who had graves were the lucky ones. Most of the fallen soldiers had no burial what-so-ever. That is, until the Green family returned to their home in 1866.

Mary Jane Green Founds The Resaca Confederate Cemetery

Mary Jane Green was astonished by the site of half-buried soldiers in the battlefields of her hometown. By July of 1866, Mary Jane was raising money and finding land to give these soldiers a proper burial. Her father (Colonel John F. Green) donated 2.5 acres and Mary Jane began planning the cemetery layout.

By October 1866, all 450 burials in the cemetery were complete and a dedication occurred on the 25th of that month. Soldiers were buried according to their state of residence. Unknown soldiers were the majority and were buried around a central stone Cross.

Without a proper perimeter fence to protect the cemetery, the United Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy directed the construction of the stone wall surrounding the cemetery in 1925.

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Naomi Cemetery – Walker County Georgia

Naomi cemetery is a quaint, rural cemetery in
Walker County, GA.

A Cemetery Nestled in the Forest

October 2016

Naomi Cemetery – Walker County Georgia

Nestled within densely forested land where thick vegetation muffles the sound of distant traffic, family members mourn the passing of their young child. Tears roll gently down the mother’s flushed cheek while her parents and her husband comfort her in silence.

There is closeness and there is privacy;
their secret sorrow shared only with the
trees and the inhabitants of the woods
surrounding the graveyard.

This is Naomi Cemetery. Or, at least,
this WAS Naomi Cemetery.

Naomi cemetery is a quaint, rural cemetery in
Walker County, GA.
Burials date back generations yet it is
still an active cemetery with modern gravestones dating
as recently as this year.

When families buried their loved ones here, they chose this
location for its placid solitude; a hallowed ground where
mourning and remembrance takes place in the comforting crook of nature.

In recent months, however, the entity in charge of the
land surrounding Naomi Cemetery clear cut the entirety of
the protective forest.

Sunlight is no longer filtered through a thickened
canopy and trees no longer filter the air.

Naomi lies fully exposed and its gravestones suffer
under a layer of dust stirred up by heavy tree cutting equipment.

On the one year anniversary of their child’s
death, the young couple visits the grave site of the
child taken, too soon, from this world of life.

Their sorrow is abating with time. They are
changed and so, too, is Naomi Cemetery.

Old Baptist Revolutionary War Cemetery – Carmel, New York

Old Baptist Revolutionary War Cemetery across from Mt. Carmel Baptist Church.

Living in the southern part of the United States, I often visit cemeteries containing Civil War soldiers. I even, occasionally, find a cemetery with Revolutionary War Soldiers as with my Rock Creek Cemetery Documentary. Although, Revolutionary War soldier grave sites are rare in the south, The Revolutionary War is fascinating and I always enjoy strolling through Revolutionary War era cemeteries when I visit New England states.

A Quick Visit To The Cemeteries Of Upstate New York

Last week, I paid a quick visit to upstate New York. Particularly, I was in Carmel, New York. While there, I dropped by the Old Baptist Revolutionary War Cemetery.

Just across 52 from Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, a hand-laid stone wall protects the Old Baptist Cemetery from a constant stream of nearby traffic.

The remains of more than a dozen Revolutionary War soldiers are at rest here. I can only imagine the changes their grave sites have witnessed in the past two and a quarter centuries.

Carmel Township is Proud of the Old Baptist Burial Ground

Town residents are proud of this cemetery. This cemetery is on a small plat of land not far from the city center. The grounds are under control of the Carmel town council. They appear to do a great job in maintenance and upkeep. It always bothers me to see cemeteries with gravestones in such tight quarters. I always hope the lawn maintenance guys are being ultra-careful running their mowers around these headstones. The graves sites are well maintained and, despite their age, most of the grave markers are readable. On the day I visited, United States flags were placed at the grave site of each soldier buried here.

While walking the grounds, I felt the distinct impression that there are probably many more burials in this cemetery than the number of markers would indicate.