cemetery

bugman

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2010
Messages
415
Location
hope arkansas
Before anyone freaks out I know hunting a cematary is out of the question. Heres my question. a friend of mine bought some land and found an overgrown cemetery when he started clearing brush. Do you think there may have been a church a joining it? it is fairly large and several different names so I don't think its a family cemetery.
 
Since you say there are different names .. it is very possible that there was a church nearby. As far as detecting THAT cemetery .. well it is on the friends property.. :?: what to do.. what to do :?:

I bet your just DYING to hunt it :laughing:
 
What date range? If there wasn't a church, there was someplace nearby to park horses and buggies, eat lunch, and all the other stuff that goes with an all day funeral.
 
What date range? If there wasn't a church, there was someplace nearby to park horses and buggies, eat lunch, and all the other stuff that goes with an all day funeral.

Right here^^^^^! Set yourself back in time...look at the place with eyes from the 1800's... Wheres the picnic and horse tie up spot, also the nearest water...Also sometimes people visiting a decedent would put coins on top of the stone, they called it 'paying the gate'...

Something like that, a private old boneyard on your Buddys Property, nobody would ever see you so our Sports Image remains virtuous..and thats whats the most Important! :laughing: Heck yes I'd hunt it! This may be your one and only chance to hunt a boneyard and would make for some really cool posts and ghost stories!:laughing:

Please take a lot of pictures with your detector leaning up against a stone, and your finds scattered out on top of another! Do a post on the 'General Hobby Discussion'! Oh Lord! Popcorn!
 
Right here^^^^^! sometimes people visiting a decedent would put coins on top of the stone, they called it 'paying the gate'...

I am Guilty of this.. about 10 years ago I visited the "family plot" in rural Texas where I have about 8 relatives all buried in a small area of a very rural cemetery. While there I placed 8 Quarters UNDER a corner rock of the rocks that outline "our" area. Why, well 2 bits for the ferry man for each of my relatives..
 
I am Guilty of this.. about 10 years ago I visited the "family plot" in rural Texas where I have about 8 relatives all buried in a small area of a very rural cemetery. While there I placed 8 Quarters UNDER a corner rock of the rocks that outline "our" area. Why, well 2 bits for the ferry man for each of my relatives..

Cool! I do this as well! must be some old timey souls...
 
I went back and looked at some pictures he sent me. Most of the stones are from the late 1800s to early 1900s. newest one was 1940.
 
For sure swing a coil around, just avoid "deep" digs. The greater satisfaction may come from locating descendants and reuniting them with the burial place of their long lost relatives.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
 
And, check some old maps of that area that show property owners and have symbols for things like schools, cemeteries, churches, etc. you might also try to find out if a local historical society or genealogical group has done a county by county cemetery recording project. I know that to be true here in Massachusetts.
If the one in question is really on private property, it was likely a family cemetery. Google “family cemeteries in xyz county” for your state and see what turns up. For sure the outskirts of said cemetery should be good hunting.

Jim
 
..., nobody would ever see you so our Sports Image remains virtuous.....!

Don't listen to puppy-mud. Detecting around or in a cemetery was puppy-mud's "gateway crime". From there it progressed to stealing hubcaps. Then to clubbing baby seals. And finally, to bank-robbery for which he is currently serving time

Don't go down puppy-mud's path ! :shock:
 
My cousin found a cemetery/small town in the Santa Cruz mountains near LosGatos around 1980. He told a friend that told a reporter. The reporter did a news story and within a month every grave had been dug.
 
My cousin found a cemetery/small town in the Santa Cruz mountains near LosGatos around 1980. He told a friend that told a reporter. The reporter did a news story and within a month every grave had been dug.

I live within an hour of where you're referring to. I won't doubt the truthfulness of this story. But , I have to ask (it just begs the question) : WHY ? :?: What is someone going to get ? A ring that the deceased was buried with ?

And if this were an "all-fired concern" and risk (of cemetery locations "leaking out"), then: What's to stop persons like that from simply going out and digging up graves nilly willy everywhere else too ? I mean, there's nothing to stop anyone from going into cemeteries anywhere and everywhere, if this were something that was really fun and profitable.

So, ... I don't get it.
 
Before anyone freaks out I know hunting a cematary is out of the question. Heres my question. a friend of mine bought some land and found an overgrown cemetery when he started clearing brush. Do you think there may have been a church a joining it? it is fairly large and several different names so I don't think its a family cemetery.

Check out Historic aerials and see what was there in the past.
Or find some other sources of old pics of the area, maybe go to the county library or such.

If it were me, I would detect all over the area, (If I had permission) except directly above the graves.
 
I live within an hour of where you're referring to. I won't doubt the truthfulness of this story. But , I have to ask (it just begs the question) : WHY ? :?: What is someone going to get ? A ring that the deceased was buried with ?

And if this were an "all-fired concern" and risk (of cemetery locations "leaking out"), then: What's to stop persons like that from simply going out and digging up graves nilly willy everywhere else too ? I mean, there's nothing to stop anyone from going into cemeteries anywhere and everywhere, if this were something that was really fun and profitable.

So, ... I don't get it.

I have no idea why they did that. My dad’s theory was they were looking for valuables buried with the dead. My cousin took us there after the graves were ransacked. I think I was in 5th grade. My father was an avid bottle digger and my cousin found some great whiskey bottles there. All my dad found was poison oak!
 
... I think I was in 5th grade. ....

Then it's possible that your memory of it has skewed with time. I can just imagine an adult, seeing an md'r hole /divot (for singular surface coin hunting) saying to a young son: "They're digging up the graves" . Then.... 30 yrs. later, it's remembered as something different.

I could be wrong, but .... It just makes no rational sense. If it's true, and some clowns did that (for some financial or pleasure gain?), then there's 100s and 100s of cemeteries and graveyards in every state, that anyone can just walk right into at night, unguarded. Strange story.
 
I might suggest one does a bit of legal research concerning graveyards, public or private. I seem to recall something about it being illegal to ransack, alter, or otherwise destroy a grave site, without regard to it's age. That may be state level laws, though.

Roger
 
True Story:

I used to live in a little Alabama town, there was an old abandoned 1800's graveyard out in the woods. only accessible by a dirt two track.....Kids would go there and park and whatnot....the wrought iron fencing was of course stolen...some stones kicked over etc. but it got enough traffic for the cops to make a whip through there every once in a while...

Well, there was this one crazy old dangerous tosser who lived nearby, everybody was afraid of this Guy! He was nearly 7' tall and just a dangerous mean creepy sumgun! The kind of a guy that would snatch a kid! Well, and I ainshiddinya, one night the cops rolled down in there to hunt for kids drinking and here that ghoul was! Shoulder deep in a hole! Robbing Graves for what I dont know!

Well, of course it made the news in our little town of 7000, Everybody knew about it....We were all talking about it down at the Bait shop, and the stories started coming out regarding the other various nastiness this Ghoul had been involved in all his worthless Life...We were getting the straight dope from even the cops that hung out here....

So while us old guys were standing there in conversation, the kid behind the counter picked up the phone and he called the local little radio station that was constantly playing as background mood noise in the baitshop...

So the kid dialed the number, and we didnt know what he was doing...But there it was right there on the radio...... It was during the the 'song request' segment of the program and to our amazement, when they answered the phone with the greeting, "WZZY do you have a song request"?, he ups and says "Yeah, my names Albert, and I'd like to hear Randy Travis' ..."Diggin' up Bones"! :laughing:

Oh Man did we like that Kid after that!! He had a sense of Humor and grasp of Irony and razor sharp Sarcasm like Jeff Foxworthy! ! About a year later he got fired from the bait shop though ...for some strange reason, I guess he was bored, he took a can of Raid and sprayed it into the cricket hopper! Killed 10,000 crickets right in the middle of Shellcracker season!! Maybe the incessant chirping of 10,000 crickets drove him temporarily insane? I dont know his motive, but the baitshop owner fired his @ss...

Then he got a job across the street running the till at the Beer Store...

He probably shoulda went to work for Keith who owned the local Pest Control outfit....since he obviously enjoyed murdering bugs, and had 10,000 verifyable Kills....:laughing:.
 
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puppy mud, it's too bad you are living in a post-internet society .

Because your creative writing wit, wisdom, "slant" etc....would have made you the Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, or Dave Barry of yesteryear. :no:
 
Then it's possible that your memory of it has skewed with time. I can just imagine an adult, seeing an md'r hole /divot (for singular surface coin hunting) saying to a young son: "They're digging up the graves" . Then.... 30 yrs. later, it's remembered as something different.

I could be wrong, but .... It just makes no rational sense. If it's true, and some clowns did that (for some financial or pleasure gain?), then there's 100s and 100s of cemeteries and graveyards in every state, that anyone can just walk right into at night, unguarded. Strange story.

I tried looking it up on google but it just keeps toting me to some billionaire bought a ghost town above Santa Cruz. My cousin quit talking to any family member that didn’t vote for “her” last election or I’d call him.
 
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