October is here, which means it's time for the 2018 Cemetery Dash! Every year in October, we encourage folks to spend some time in their local historic cemeteries. You could show it some love with a clean up day, give it a good monitoring with our
HMS Florida forms, or even just stroll through and enjoy the sites. Whatever you do, just get out there!
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| The troops fanned out and inspecting Union Grove Cemetery for the oldest stone, unique features and any other important information to include on the site's Florida Master Site File Form. |
We kicked off the month with a dash through some of Putnam County's unrecorded cemeteries. A group of volunteers from the area helped us fill out the
Florida Master Site File forms for each of the 3 cemeteries, take photos of the sites and any unique features, and collect GPS points. All of this information will be filed with the State's Site File to offer some protection to the sites. Below are a few photos of highlights from our dash through the sites.
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| Sign at the entrance of Etoniah Cemetery in Bardin. |
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| My first white zinc monument spotted in the wild! From Etoniah Cemetery. |
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| Beautiful vernacular stone from Union Grove Baptist Church. |
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| Two of Harlem's postmasters at Providence Baptist Church Cemetery. A parishioner we meet at the site told us that Mrs. Minton took over from Mr. Minton after he grew sick. Unfortunately, only he got the post-mortem recognition! |
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| And what Halloween blog is complete without a bit (preservation) horror! A pile of foot stones sadly removed from their original locations and piled in the corner of Union Grove Cemetery. |
Be sure to check out our map of
historic cemeteries throughout the State. And
our flier with some best practices for cemetery clean ups!
