Nature Reclaims an Abandoned and Forgotten Cemetery

Photo: a_codepoet

Memorial Day is about remembering loved ones who have died. But what happens over time as the immediate family grows larger through generations? Should people ever be so forgotten that the cemetery is no longer cared for, no one visits, no one remembers? Clearly beyond the abandoned and forgotten past, nature has reclaimed this forsaken cemetery.

Far away from urban exploration, in the woods pictured below, a forsaken cemetery awaits someone to remember it. After marching through poison ivy and the thicket, the first stone was found by literally tripping over it. It was often the case for babies or children to have very short tombstones, so the eerie chills began while exploring this morbid place.

Photo: a_codepoet

There is no moment of remembrance, no Memorial Day, for these graves. A tombstone can be seen dead-center in the middle of the image below. This is not a small family plot, but a large cemetery of over 50 visible tombstones. Who knows how many graves and headstones are simply unseen and hidden by nature?

Photo: a_codepoet

The image below appears to be rocks with the forest climbing over them, slowly but surely swallowing them whole. However, after closer inspection, this is four different stones built into one, marking four graves and one family.

Photo: a_codepoet

Many of the tombstones are unreadable and darkened with age. Many are lost in a tangle and as completely forgotten as the graves below. Only nature seems to remember this cemetery as it reclaims the land. Is that what is truly meant by ashes to ashes and dust to dust? Even with a decade old memory of this place, it was extremely difficult to find. Should any cemetery ever be this forsaken?

Photo: a_codepoet

Nature moved in to take over as it does in all abandoned places. Although there are several graves still marked by standing tombstones like in the photo below, graves are nearly impossible to locate, hidden and long forgotten. Back in the 1800s, most stones were difficult to make. Families toiled for months at hand-chiseling tombstones as love offerings. Some of the fancy stones here would have cost a fortune! How did this cemetery go from that to this?

Photo: a_codepoet

What can be seen of the tombstones show all different sizes, shapes, and styles like these below.

Photo: a_codepoet

Below there are seven visible graves in one shot. You can be almost on top of one before you see it. If not looking closely, they are easy to miss. Most of the tombstones are toppled over and now buried beneath the forest floor as nature erases all traces of this crowded cemetery.

Photo: a_codepoet

Below, like in many places here, the stones are no longer erect. Markers are resting against rotten logs. How long ago was this done?

Photo: a_codepoet

Moldy and unreadable tombstones mark unknown people. These headstones may not even be close to the actual graves for whom they were made.

Photo: a_codepoet

How could people and places which were once important now be this forsaken? Does any person deserve this?

Photo: a_codepoet

As you can see in the image below, there is no path. This is no easy hike.

Photo: a_codepoet

The deeper one pushed through the maze and tangle of the woods, the more evident it became that this is a massive cemetery.

Photo: a_codepoet

Although these headstones are still standing in their rightful places, there are no longer neat rows of tombstones like in most cemeteries. If you walk across the woods, however, the gravestones are still there. There is an unnatural stillness to this land as if it were a haunted forest.

Photo: a_codepoet

As in these images below, some of the names are completely illegible. Those that can be seen show proof that this cemetery was an important place in the 1800s.

Photo: a_codepoet

Woodland creatures visit this creepy place. In the not too distant past, some kind of animal gnawed on the downed tree that is pictured below.

Photo: a_codepoet

It's eerie here like most abandoned places and highly inadvisable to explore alone. The wind whispers in hushed tones as if trying to speak to you, as if ghosts from this place want someone to remember them.

Photo: a_codepoet

This area in southern Illinois is a very rural setting now, miles out in the sticks, miles from anyone. Beyond abandoned, the atmosphere in this decrepit and ghoulish place is creepy to the nth degree.

Photo: a_codepoet

Only the support from a rotting log keeps the tombstone pictured below from toppling face forward into the forest floor.
Photo: a_codepoet

Granted, there has been more than a century's worth of weather such as ice storms and tornadoes to rip off tree branches. But did this cemetery also suffer from grave robbers? Although a few stones stand upright, there are many headstones in almost pile-like heaps.

Photo: a_codepoet

Considering it's from 1852 and utterly forgotten in the woods, the tombstone below is in excellent condition. In fact, this grave marker is in the second best condition and would have cost a fortunate back in that time. Who knows what wiped out this family of three in one day, but no one seems to care.

Photo: a_codepoet

In the passing of 200 years, much can happen. Yet how can a cemetery become so utterly forsaken? Your children and grandchildren will likely visit your grave. Don't you find it unsettling to think the place where you will be buried could end up like this? On the other hand, you'll be dead . . . so does it even matter?

Photo: a_codepoet

Pictured below is the best preserved tombstone in the woods. It stands nearly 4 feet high. Unlike most of the others, nature has not climbed over the 1831 stone which reads, "Asleep Until He Comes."

Photo: a_codepoet

Stay classy; don't simply forget the dead but use this abandoned graveyard to dump an old wrecked truck. It is unknown how long the rusted heap pictured below has been in this cemetery. It is also unknown how many forsaken graves are hidden in these woods. Furthermore, this cemetery might not have been a forest in its heyday; it could have started with only a couple of trees for decoration.

Photo: a_codepoet

When no one came to remember this family, a tree grew around the gravestone. When all abandoned this place, nature stepped in to reclaim it.

Photo: a_codepoet

There are 10 tombstones in the image below. Can you find them? Even more unsettling in this eerie abandoned cemetery is the opaque circle in the center of the photo. Look at it full scale. Is that sphere an orb or more than one orb in the center of all those graves?

Photo: a_codepoet

As the daylight burned away and darkness moved in, it became even harder to spot the tombstones. The woods where this cemetery now hides took on an even creepier atmosphere. Alone and exploring, it was time to go. Right before stepping out of the woods, there was a whispered promise to the dead about making sure people know about this cemetery. A promise was made to make sure not everyone has forgotten them.

Photo: a_codepoet

Memorial Day is a great time for picnics and parties. It's a day off work for many. Perhaps after seeing this abandoned, totally forgotten and forsaken cemetery, you can find a few minutes to also go pay your respect to those who died before you?