Wandering a Forgotten Cemetery on a Spring Day

Cemeteries hide behind every corner here.  I'm not sure if all places are like this,  but in Madison County, Alabama cemeteries are part of the landscape.  They go almost unnoticed, they have become so common place.  There is one in the woods behind our neighborhood and another by Target in between the Mexican restraunt and the interstate.  There's one across from karate and several on the small road that leads to downtown.  I found an entire neighborhood that was built around a potter's field.  A potter's field is an old word to describe a poor person's cemetery.  Apparently,  the developer couldn't identify any of the names on the markers, so legally he couldn't relocate the bodies.   So the developer just made a square of houses around the cemetery with the houses backyards opening up directly onto the graves.

I decided to visit one of the old cemeteries I pass everyday.   There is no easy way to get to the cemetery.  There is no official parking.  All the graves are so old no one goes to visit anymore.  The youngest tombstone there is dated 1944.   The cemetery was beautiful,  hidden beneath old trees that rustled in the gentle spring breeze.   I chose this cemetery because a website I visited said that it was haunted.   According to the site,  there is a rocking chair on the porch of the nearby church that rocks on its own and footsteps can be heard following you through the cemetery as you walk through it.  

As I walked through the old graveyard,  I heard leaves crunching behind me.   Of course,  it may have been squirrels or birds scurrying in the undergrowth behind me, but I imagined that there were ghosts walking with me as I wandered the necropolis.  Shadows danced at my feet and the light made a lace on the tombstones.  It was a beautiful day and the cemetery offered a solitude that is rare in modern life.   It is amazing to me that such beauty can surrround us every day and go entirely unnoticed.   I have to wonder,  are all places like this?  Do tiny graveyards and necropolis's dot the landscape of every city hiding behind buildings and highways or is Madison County unique?

The Church Street Cemetery

The Church Street Cemetery is tucked neatly away in the shadows of the lazy oaks of Mobile, Alabama.  The moss drips off the trees and brushes the ancient tomb stones. The graves here are old.  Some of them go back two hundred years or more.  During Mardi Gras,  the cemetery is almost festive and several of the tomb stones are covered in strange bright decorations.  Mardi Gras beads hang off some and  tiny plastic monkeys covered a grave that payed homage to someone who loved to throw a party.  The bright colors are a stark contrast to what should be a somber scene.   Everything seems a little out of place and visitors aren't sure whether to surrender to the sense that there are ghosts everywhere or crack open and beer and start to party.  Either option would be appropriate in this setting.

In fact,  this little cemetery is the starting point for the largest parades of Mardi Gras.  Buried in this cemetery is Joe Cain.   Joe Cain was a civil war veteran who fought for the South and is credited for the rebirth of Mardi Gras traditions that had been abandoned since the French left the Gulf.   Partly to awaken a depressed and defeated city and partly to spit in the faces of triumphant union soldiers,  on the first mardi gras following the civil war Joe dressed up as a Chicksaw Indian and paraded up and down Government Street.  He was joined by other revelers and a tradition was born in Mobile that would take hold of the city every year that followed.   In 1974,  Joe Cain's Merry Widows were formed as one of the most interesting Mardi Gras Societies.  Every Sunday, Joe Cain Day, before Fat Tuesday these widows dress in black and go to the Church Street Cemetery.   The parade starts from the cemetery and follows the women, dressed all in black, around the parade route drinking and hurling beads.   Even from the grave,  Joe Cain is the life of the party.

So you have to wonder if Joe Cain's ghost is anything to fear.  His ghost certainly wanders this cemetery waiting for the party to come to him again.   His presence and the presence of other ghosts can be felt as soon as you stepthrough gates of  the cemetery.   A cold chill travels up your spine and I wasn't sure whether to shutter or laugh.  My children ran through this cemetery with the EMF, which lit up like a Christmas tree.    I didn't catch anything on film here nor did anything come up on the voice recorder, but the ghosts were a real presence in this cemetery.  Haunted America even ranked this graveyard as one of the most haunted cemeteries in Alabama.   Yet despite the ghosts,  I still felt this was more of a happy place.  I felt that maybe the ghosts waiting here were waiting for the next party and that their only unfinished business might be the next Mardi Gras.

Ghost Hunting Tips

I got my ghost hunting kit together tonight and went out into the darkness for the first time.  I violated most of the tips I am going to list in my eagerness to venture into the night with my night vision camera, electromagnetic field meter, thermometer, and electronic voice phenomena recording device. I went out alone to a lonely cemetery in the woods near my house.  I did bring my dog and I am  fairly sure he is psychic, so that does make me a little bit more professional.  What I learned fumbling around through the bramble in the dark while chasing shadows is that the cemetery by my house is probably not haunted and is definately thick with thorns.  I'll be picking stickers our of my pants and putting neosporin on my wounds for a few days to come.   With all my mistakes in mind,  I thought I would list some tips provided by the Ghost Hunter's Guidebook to help others avoid my silly mistakes.

1.  Never go alone into an investigation  (I don't think I broke this rule since I brought my psychic dog)

2.  Try to make sure that those who own the site you are going to have granted permission for you to investigate.

3.  Keep your perceptions clear prior to the investigation.  Do not drink, smoke, or use drugs before investigating.

4.  Arrive with skepticism.

5.  Make sure you bring along all of the items that you need to properly conduct your investigation.

6.  Avoid publicity and the media when starting a case.

7.  Interview any witnesses in depth.

8.  Become part of the location.  Try to blend into the background as much as possible.

9.  Always respect the location and always be polite.

I will try to follow more of these rules on my next expedition, but for tonight I just enjoyed stumbling around in the bramble, peering through my night vision camera, and hoping my catch a glimpse of something paranormal.