I grew up on an abandoned cemetery. Sounds creepy, huh? Aspen Grove was a historic Civil War hospital in Northern Virginia. At one point it was used by both the North and South as a place to treat wounded soldiers. The wood floors had the stains of their blood. The property was filled with artifacts of war in the ground, and everywhere ghosts wandered the halls and the hillsides. I wrote about this in my book Growing Up With Ghosts, where I conveyed my own and my family's encounters. 

All of this made me fascinated with abandoned sites and graveyards. Let me share some autumnal abandoned cemeteries - 

There is something about stumbling onto an abandoned cemetery in autumn that feels like Halloween magic. It's quiet. It's solemn. It's surrounded by vibrant colors and wind-blown leaves that crunch under your feet, and yet the stones are mildewed with warn corners, moss, and lichens. It's like an ancient book that was kept on a shelf and turned musty and dull, its contents long forgotten. 

This cemetery (above) I found on a path from cabin 5 at Pipestem Resort, WV. It has some rough fencing around it, several headstones, and a lonely hike. I did it one time after dark without a flashlight to see how brave I am in the woods, only when I did it, something paralled me on the path back to the cabin. It walked on two feet heavily while I walked. when I stopped, it stopped. I can guess what the escort was, a Bigfoot. Pipestem resort is flooded with deer, turkeys, and others that are protected as a no-hunting area. In fact, another time visiting there, I had a rock thrown toward me, missing me. after another few rocks were thrown from the deep woods, I scurried out.

If you do come across one, be sure to check out Find-A-Grave site, as they depend on folks to find, report, and inventory the graves. See if the cemetery is unknown and be sure to take photos and notes of the graves. 

Photographing is best done with the sun either early in the morning or later in the day when it casts long shadows.

Many abandoned graves were private family sites, pauper graves, mass epidemic graveyards, and war-time burials often undocumented.

Recently, I visited an abandoned cemetery deep in the woods that locals believe is haunted. It was in Northern Georgia and was once associated with a church that moved. The woods there were very unsettling and beautiful, the energy from the cemetery was a crazy mix, as it felt like a wide variety of time periods and folks had been buried there, leaving a residual ping pong of energy stream. I could see why the folks thought it was haunted. Here's some pictures (below) from it. I have to admit, I plan to go back when the colors peak as it was exquisitely gorgeous and lonely up there. 

Some of the most tragic forgotten graveyards are deep underwater at the bottom of manmade lakes. 

Canary Islands Memorial

Lake Lanier, Georgia

Lake Lanier in North Georgia was created when the Army Corp created a dam, sending out residents of the area and flooding the homes and businesses. They attempted to move the graves in the cemetery, but they didn't have the mapping capability to move them all and thus there are headstones and graves beneath a lake many believe is haunted.

Let's take a look at some beautiful autumn cemetery photos - 

Rest in peace.