Cemetery Tours
Walk among the dead in America's most historic burial grounds, where architecture, history, and ghost stories intersect.
American cemetery tours offer far more than ghost stories. These burial grounds preserve centuries of history, art, and architecture in outdoor museums that most visitors overlook. From New Orleans' above-ground "Cities of the Dead" to Salem's weathered Puritan headstones, each cemetery tells stories about how Americans lived, died, and remembered their dead.
The cemetery tourism movement began in the 19th century when rural cemeteries like Mount Auburn in Boston became destinations for Sunday strolls. Today's tours combine this tradition of contemplative visiting with historical research and, often, paranormal investigation.
Guided cemetery tours provide context that independent visitors miss: who lies beneath each stone, why certain symbols appear on monuments, and how burial practices reflected the beliefs and fears of each era. The best guides balance respect for the dead with engaging storytelling.
Why Take a Cemetery Tour?
Historical Access: Cemeteries often preserve the only remaining evidence of communities that left few other records. Enslaved people, immigrants, epidemic victims, and other marginalized groups may have graves when they have nothing else in the historical record.
Architectural Heritage: Victorian-era cemeteries contain some of America's finest funerary art. Elaborate mausoleums, hand-carved statuary, and ornate ironwork represent craftsmanship rarely seen in modern construction.
Paranormal Interest: For those drawn to ghost stories, cemeteries offer concentrated locations for reported activity. Whether you're a believer or skeptic, the atmosphere of historic burial grounds at dusk creates a unique experience.
Genealogical Research: Cemetery tours often reveal burial locations and family connections that online databases miss. Guides familiar with local history can identify unmarked graves and explain family relationships.
Types of Historic Cemeteries
Colonial Churchyards
Attached to churches, these small burial grounds hold a community's earliest settlers. Space limitations mean graves often overlap, and headstones may have been moved or lost over centuries.
Rural Cemeteries
The 19th-century rural cemetery movement created park-like burial grounds with winding paths, landscaping, and monumental sculpture. These were designed as much for the living as the dead.
Above-Ground Tombs
In New Orleans and other areas with high water tables, above-ground burial became necessary. These "Cities of the Dead" feature distinctive architecture found nowhere else in America.
Potter's Fields
Municipal burial grounds for the poor, unknown, and unclaimed often contain mass graves from epidemics. Many have been built over, their locations forgotten until construction unearths remains.
Cemetery Tour Etiquette
Cemeteries remain active places of mourning. Even in historic sections that haven't seen new burials in decades, families may visit ancestors' graves. Tour groups should maintain respectful volume levels and avoid blocking access to graves.
Never touch, sit on, or lean against monuments. Historic stones are often fragile, and oils from skin can accelerate deterioration. Photography is generally acceptable but ask before photographing recent graves with fresh flowers or personal items.
Some cemeteries restrict access or require licensed guides. St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans, for example, only admits visitors with approved tour companies following incidents of vandalism. Check requirements before visiting.