Vehicle graveyards are just that—places where vehicles go to die, slowly succumbing to rust until they are saved or scrapped. The decaying vehicles can often be an eerie sight, and many of the largest vehicle graveyards boast some fairly strange stories.
High in the Andes, in the southwest of Bolivia, lies the Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt plain. In 1888, as the local mining industry boomed, British engineers were invited to build a railway network that stretched down to the Pacific. Despite constant sabotage from the local Aymara indigenous people who saw the railway as a threat to their way of life, the lines were completed in 1892.
However, by the 1940s the mining economy had collapsed as mineral deposits became exhausted. As the railway fell into disuse, many of the steam trains were simply abandoned on the salt flats. Even today, it makes for a strange sight: lines of rusting steam engines, many of them manufactured in the UK, baking under the desert sun. Since there are no fences or guards, most of the trains have had metal components stolen from them—some of the gutted parts litter the surrounding area. There are plans to turn the graveyard into a museum, but until then the trains are at the mercy of the locals and the environment.
Until recently, the deep woods around the small Belgian town of Chatillon concealed four car graveyards, containing over 500 vehicles slowly being claimed by moss and rust. There is some disagreement over the origin of the vehicles. The most frequently repeated story is that the graveyards began at the end of World War II, when American soldiers unable to afford to ship their cars back home simply left them in the forest, with more being added over the years. Another, less interesting story holds that they were simply the remains of an abandoned junkyard.
Most of the cars were produced in the 1950s and ’60s, and many were highly collectible. As such, a large number were missing parts, either salvaged by collectors or taken by souvenir hunters looking for trinkets. The last of the graveyards was cleared in 2010 amid environmental concerns, but plenty of eerie photos remain.
Oranjemund, Namibia is a small town entirely owned by a company called Namdeb, a joint venture between the Namibian government and the De Beers diamond cartel. Located close to the mouth of the Orange River, it is home to large diamond reserves—the town was built to house the mineworkers. The area is incredibly restricted—armed guards patrol the perimeter and you’re not even allowed through the airport turnstiles without a permit. Anyone found in unauthorized possession of a diamond faces up to 15 years in prison and workers have been known to try and smuggle the gems out hidden up their noses or shoot them over the fences with homemade crossbows. On one occasion, a homing pigeon was discovered wearing a tiny jacket stuffed full of diamonds.
Oranjemund is also home to one of the world’s largest earth-moving fleets, second only to the US Army. Once a vehicle enters the mine compound, it is never allowed to leave, apparently to stop them from being used to smuggle out diamonds. Some of the rusting machinery dates back to the 1920s and includes World War II tanks formerly used to bulldoze sand. Company executives used to proudly show off the collection, but now, conscious of their public image, have begun refusing to let photographs be taken of the graveyard.
With a population of almost 100,000, Nouadhibou is the second-largest city in Mauritania—one of the poorest nations in the world. The city’s port, located on a wide bay, offers excellent protection for ships to shelter from the Atlantic and is the gateway to some of the best fishing grounds in the world. Iron ore extracted nearby is exported through the port, making it a minor trade hub.
In the 1980s, locals began abandoning outdated and unwanted vessels in the shallow waters of the bay. Before long, ships started to come from all over the world to be dumped in Nouadhibou, facilitated by local authorities only too happy to take a bribe to look the other way. From fishing trawlers to naval cruisers, a huge variety of ships now rust away in the shallow waters. One of the largest is the United Malika, which ran aground in 2003 while carrying a load of fish (the 17 crew members were rescued by the Mauritanian navy). Since then it hasn’t been moved.
Despite measures to prevent further dumping, the number of abandoned ships continues to rise, albeit at a slower pace than before. As a major iron ore exporter, there has been limited incentive for locals to cut the ships apart for scrap. It isn’t all bad however—the half-sunk ships act as a breeding ground for fish and local fishermen often stretch nets between the boats. The government’s current plan is to use the ships to form an artificial reef in deeper waters, but little has been done since the plan was announced in 2001.
In Nezametnaya Cove, located inside the Arctic Circle in the far north of Russia, lies a Soviet submarine graveyard. Starting in the ’70s, military submarines, many of them nuclear powered, were simply abandoned in the cove on the isolated Kola Peninsula. The Soviet shipyards were apparently too busy filling orders for new submarines to care about disassembling the old ones.
Access to the area is forbidden without a permit, so information on the graveyard remains limited. It is known that some of the subs were finally scrapped in the ’90s amid concerns over water pollution, but Google Earth images, pictured above, seem to indicate that there are at least seven remaining.
In 1955, the newly nationalized British Railways announced a plan to scrap a wide swath of its aging fleet. The newly redundant stock included around 650,000 wagons and 16,000 steam locomotives. Due to the large amount of rolling stock to scrap, British Railways’ yards were unable to cope and many of the trains were sold to private scrapyards. Among them was Woodham Brothers scrapyard in Barry, South Wales. At first, the steam locomotives were cut up shortly after arriving, but by the autumn of 1965 owner Dai Woodham had decided to concentrate on the easier job of scrapping the large numbers of wagons that were rolling into the yard.
The rusting steam locomotives were left out in the open, where they quickly became a popular tourist attraction in Barry. Enthusiasts of steam trains soon realized that Woodham Brothers offered a chance to obtain rare locomotives for the preserved lines that had started to open up around the country—many of the models in Dai’s yard were impossible to find elsewhere. In September 1968, the first “rescued” steam locomotive left the yard, and the pace increased throughout the ’70s. In the end, 213 steam engines were rescued for preservation, much to Dai’s surprise. The last one left Barry in March 2013.
Dai, who died in 1994, was said to have been immensely proud of his part in saving the engines for future generations. Today, many of the steam locomotives from his yard can be found running on preserved lines around Britain.
Beside the Erie Canal, in Lockport, New York, there was an aging warehouse that became legendary in the motorcycle community. The warehouse was once owned by a man named Kohl, who supposedly owned a number of motorbike dealerships over his lifetime. Buying cheap Japanese bikes and defunct dealers’ stock, he soon amassed a staggering number of the vehicles. He bought the building in the 1970s to store the vast collection before selling it off, contents included, in 1997. Mr. Kohl died in 2002, aged 80.
The buyer, known only as Frank, intended to use the warehouse to start a company selling motorcycle parts. However, the building had fallen into a state of disrepair and Frank was unable to justify the cost of fixing the damage. Eventually, the warehouse was condemned by the local authorities, barring anyone from viewing the collection. By November 2010, the bikes had all been cleared out, with many seemingly going to scrap.
Pictures of the graveyard first surfaced in April 2010 on Flickr, causing motorbike enthusiasts to seek out the graveyard, with some buying rare bikes and spare parts just in time. Photographer Chris Seward sums it up well: “It is definitely one of the most eerie, strangest places I have ever been.”
RAF Folkingham, in Lincolnshire, UK, was originally opened in 1940 as a decoy airfield for RAF Spitalgate—complete with fake planes and personnel—before being handed over to US control in early 1944. Douglas C-47 Dakotas stationed at the airfield were used during the D-Day landings.
The base was handed back to RAF control in April 1945 and closed in 1947, after which British Racing Motors, a Formula One team, used the runways as a test track. It was re-opened by the RAF in 1959 and used as a site for Thor thermonuclear missiles until its second closure in 1963, when it was sold off for agricultural land.
Today the site is owned by Nelson M. Green & Sons Ltd., which uses the old airfield to store hundreds of vehicles used to source spare parts. Among the vehicles are old Caterpillar bulldozers, fuel bowsers, cranes, and tractors, as well as ex-military lorries and armored vehicles dating back to World War II. There is even a DUKW amphibious vehicle, pictured above, which was used in the D-Day landings. Also on site are three pads that housed the aforementioned Thor missiles. Today, the vehicles are still lined up, awaiting their eventual fate.
After the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, it wasn’t just people and buildings that were affected by the radiation—so were the vast number of vehicles used in the firefighting and subsequent cleanup operation. Since the disaster, the majority of the vehicles have been sitting in huge graveyards, the largest being at Rassokha, awaiting their fate. However, not all of the vehicles are in the graveyards. The fire trucks that got to the disaster area first had to be buried deep underground.
In the middle of most of the graveyards are the firefighting helicopters whose pilots and crew were among the most badly affected by the radiation. Scarily, locals have been caught attempting to salvage metal from the vehicles, despite the huge risks. The Ukrainian police have arrested a number of people for attempting to salvage one of the Mi-8 helicopters deployed in the operation, which they intended to use as a cafe.
Officially known as the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and home to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG), the Boneyard is a huge aircraft storage ground located in the middle of the Arizona desert. The size of 1,430 soccer pitches, the Boneyard is home to more than 4,200 aircraft, worth around $35 billion, and is easily the world’s largest military aircraft cemetery.
The Boneyard’s aircraft are divided into four categories: Category 1000 refers to those preserved and able to fly again if needed, Category 2000 are used for spare parts, Category 3000 contains planes in good condition and likely to eventually be redeployed, and Category 4000 refers to outdated aircraft likely to become museum pieces or be scrapped. Among the fourth category were many of the iconic B-52 bombers, scrapped after a 1991 arms reduction treaty with Russia.
Arizona is perfect for the facility since its dry climate helps prevent decay. Unsurprisingly, AMARG works hard to prove that, rather than wasting government money, it in fact earns money through the sale of parts. Such is the fame of the Boneyard that you can even take a guided tour around the site.
Will is an aspiring writer from the UK, whose other interests include filming and photography.
]]>Industrial growth was the driving force in creating the modern world. The economic progress of a country greatly depends on its industrial progress. But this industrial growth, in most cases, comes with a useless byproduct or end-cycle waste. This industrial waste cannot be left casually lying around, so we have to ask: what do they do with it? The answer may surprise you—or maybe not—but it’s apparent that it can become a ticking bomb with severe consequences to the ecology of that area.
That is why handling this industrial junk is a big challenge. After a while, certain types of industrial waste have become endemic to a few areas. These places receive a massive amount of that industrial junk from around the world every year. The situation is such that these places are now known for the type of useless waste dumped there. This list includes ten of the world’s most unique industrial graveyards, now famous for the industrial junk thrown there.
Related: 10 Truly Troubling Facts About The Clothing Industry
The first industrial junk graveyard on our list is so big that it is visible from space. And when seen from space, a black carpet-like mass is visible on the ground. This area in Kuwait holds more than 50 million tires. Anyone arriving at this place for the first time will start scratching their head, trying to understand where they collected this colossal number of tires from? The second question that will come to mind is why?
The answer to the “where” question is that the tires came from Kuwait and the rest of the world. The answer to why is that from 1980 to 2001, Kuwait dealt in the business of importing used tires from the world—especially from the U.S. and Europe. Kuwait provided a space in its desert for other countries to throw their unwanted tire junk.
But in two decades, the size of this rubber junk became so huge that Kuwait had to ban these imports in 2001. Now Kuwait is trying hard to dispose of the 50 million tires. It has started using recycling technology to make money from these tires, but the sheer quantity of tires outweighs any benefit as a resource. Frequent fires are reported in this tire graveyard, causing enormous environmental damage. These tire fires are also difficult to control and require considerable resources.[1]
Used cars fill the second industrial junk graveyard on our list. The cars here are vintage ones. And with 4,500+ cars and trucks, this is the world’s largest graveyard of vintage automobiles. Old Car City was opened in 1931 in Georgia, USA. The initial plan of this junkyard was to collect scrap metal from cars, and this became a main focus, particularly during WW2.
But in later years, this junk haven became famous for its vintage car models. Most of the car models are from 1972 or earlier. Today, the junkyard also serves as an old car museum, containing more than 4,000 great American classic cars. It is a popular tourist place, with people from all over visiting to see its extensive vintage car collection.[2]
E-waste forms the majority of industrial junk the 21st century produces. Ours is an age of smartphones, computers, and electronic devices. Modern-day consumerism promotes updating our smartphones and computers every year. This tendency leaves behind an ever-growing stockpile of old, discarded electronic devices, which otherwise were in perfect working order. About 50 million tons of e-waste gets created every year, and this enormous amount of e-waste cannot all be recycled. E-waste is accepted by technology companies if recyclable. But what cannot be recycled becomes a waste of space and liability and needs to be discarded.
As often happens, wasteful developed countries need to find somewhere to dump their waste. And many times, that place is a less-developed country, usually in Africa or South America. In the case of e-waste, the country is Ghana. A wasteland area now, Agbogbloshie in Ghana has become the world’s biggest e-waste dumpsite. About 10,000 local workers work daily in this graveyard. Some e-waste of used goods gets sold in poor African countries at low prices. From other e-waste, the workers extract precious elements using acid, chemicals, and fire. This process badly affects the local population’s health because of the toxins released. Until a strong nation decides to shoulder responsibility, this e-waste graveyard will keep becoming more harmful to the human population.
Despite being the source of thousands of livelihoods (and health problems), the government of Ghana leveled this site and the recycling center and market near it. Now, the work done with the tons of e-waste still coming in has now moved underground—closer to where people live, bringing the health risks home.[3]
In this next item on our list, we see the plastic jungle graveyard in Malaysia. Plastic waste is something very few countries like to keep on their land. Malaysia tried to sustain a business based on importing plastic waste from all over the world. Malaysia planned to convert that plastic waste into marketable products. So, very quickly, Malaysia became the plastic graveyard of the world.
But like other countries on this list, the imported plastic waste became too much to handle for Malaysia. The benefits of importing plastic waste were reduced as the mountain of waste grew, the task of treating plastic waste becoming intimidating. As a result, Malaysia has started returning unwanted plastic waste to European countries. Now Malaysia is left with the daunting task of handling plastic waste stockpiles on its soil, but there is no easy solution for it. The more plastic waste remains, the more environmental problems it will cause.[4]
World War 2 was the last full-scale war that engulfed the entire world. There is no accurate count of the bombs dropped by both sides in the war. But after the end of WW2, getting rid of all those unexploded bombs became a headache for the allied nations. The United Kingdom government decided to use a natural submarine trench in their ocean waters for this task.
This trench is called Beaufort’s Dyke, and it is a 50-kilometer-long (31-mile) trench in the North Channel’s water. This channel divides Northern Ireland and Scotland, and Beaufort’s Dyke sits right in between this channel. Since WW2, the UK has dumped about 1.15 million tons of conventional and chemical bombs in this trench. This figure makes it the largest bomb graveyard in the world. Unfortunately for the UK, it was discovered that the dumping did not start or end with WWII. It is believed the UK used this area from the 1920s until 1976.
Weapons experts feel that this amount of unexploded artillery in one place is like a ticking time bomb—no pun intended. Because after years of corrosion, the shells of the bombs are more likely to corrode, potentially leading to explosions. Because of Beaufort’s Dyke, plans for a bridge between Ireland and Scotland have always been rejected. Also, sometimes the bombs from this trench wash up on the nearby coasts and cause problems. The world’s largest bomb graveyard can cause an explosion of unimaginable proportions if it ever triggers, so safe disposal of this graveyard is in the best interest of everyone.[5]
There is a saying, “A mighty storm is inconsequential when facing a mighty ship.” But every mighty ship at one point has to call it a day. After a ship is decommissioned or no longer of use, it is often sent to various desolate shipyards around the world. In these yards, the past glory of the ship is ripped apart for the price of the metal. Ships get dismantled down to the last possible detail.
Alang Shipyard in Gujarat, India, is one such graveyard for ships. Annually, 400–500 ships arrive at Alang for dismantling. The entire coastline of Alang has views of ships at different stages of dismantling. To a movie buff, these ships might look like Godzilla has half-eaten these ships. The sound of metal banging is the only sound echoing apart from the waves. The toxic waste from these ships is also a big problem in Alang as the toxic waste from the process has destroyed the marine life near the yard. Despite being a 100-billion-dollar industry, a visit to Alang evokes feelings of attending the funeral of a once-mighty ship.[6]
The next item on our list is a unique graveyard in the Atacama Desert located in Chile. It is an uninhabited and barren desert situated close to the Chilean port city of Iquique. This graveyard is like the dead-end of the clothing supply chain. It receives about 60,000 thousand tons of unwanted clothing every year, with Chile being the largest importer of used clothing. About 40% of these used clothes are sold again in poor Latin American countries.
However, the clothes that find no buyers—even by weight—will get dumped into the Atacama Desert. This clothing graveyard now has mountains of unused and discarded clothing. And these mountains keep growing as truckloads of clothes get dumped here every year. Some of these clothes are high-end fashion apparel, while others result from the devastating effects of fast fashion. This giant graveyard reflects the mindless consumerism of humans.[7]
The next item on our list is the Hanford Nuclear Site, situated near the Colombia River in Washington State and spread over a 1,517-square-kilometer (586-square-mile) area. Through the Cold War, the Hanford Site produced plutonium for nuclear weapons. Two-thirds of the U.S. nuclear weapons have received plutonium from this facility. Now, this facility serves as a nuclear waste graveyard.
At Hanford, about 56 million gallons of liquid nuclear waste lie in underground storage tanks. The solid waste lies buried underground, but it is still dangerous as it won’t lose its radioactivity for many years. There have been instances of storage tanks leaking radioactive waste. The employees working at the Hanford Site have reported getting deadly diseases like cancer after working here. Hanford is the largest nuclear waste graveyard in the world and could become a Chernobyl-like disaster if any nuclear spill happens.[8]
A space mission is a noble task and a symbol of human progress. But this noble cause also has problems of its own. Like all things in life, spacecraft have an end-cycle phase. In this phase, it creates spacecraft junk. The junk includes rockets that have ejected satellites or decommissioned and damaged spaceships. Not many people know what happens to defunct spaceships or satellites. One thing is sure: they cannot be left rotating around the earth. It would become a potential danger for future space missions.
Therefore, a dumping site for spacecraft junk was required. For this purpose, scientists chose the most remote location on Earth. This exact location is called Point Nemo and lies in the Pacific Ocean. Point Nemo is the farthest from any landmass on Earth. According to scientists, the remoteness of this point made it the best choice for dumping space junk. A spacecraft reentering the earth’s atmosphere gets superheated, and the chance of its burning debris injuring anyone is least at Point Nemo. Any diver crazy enough to reach the Point Nemo sea bed will find many famous spaceships lying in peace.[9]
The last place on our list is a 67-kilometer-long (42-mile) bay area in the Great Gulf. For years this site was a dumping spot for the neighboring glass industry and locals throwing empty alcohol bottles. Truckloads of waste glass bottles were thrown in this bay, making it the glass dumping ground of the world.
The thoughtless human behavior converted this beautiful bay into an unsightly dumping site. But then, like a savior, Mother Nature decided to step in. Now, this human-made mess has been turned into something stunningly beautiful.
Using the tidal waves at the bay, with slow and steady erosion, nature turned these piercing glass pieces into colorful pebbles. This entire bay now looks like a rainbow has landed on it or like you are looking through a kaleidoscope. Ussuri Bay is now a famous tourist spot, where people come to see what miracle nature has done with the garbage thrown at it.[10]
]]>Cemeteries are spooky places. It doesn’t matter how old they are. There’s just something unsettling about the presence of dead bodies and ghostly gravestones. Of course, the United States is a young country, relatively speaking. Graveyards across Europe and Asia are often centuries older than those in America. Tales of the people buried on those sites are practically ancient. Stories about their rumored spirits have been handed down for generations.
While the U.S. doesn’t have quite as long of a history, it does boast its own ancient afterlife. And the burial grounds that go along with it are fascinating. Historians across America study old cemeteries to learn about the past. The stories they’ve unearthed are both unsettling and amazing. In this list, you’ll learn about ten of America’s oldest graveyards and the supposed spirits who stay within. These centuries-old cemeteries are seriously spooky!
New York City has a very long history. It’s also a modern-day travel destination and business hub. So you wouldn’t be wrong to think much of the historic Big Apple has been paved over and renovated. But not everything in NYC is moving forward. In fact, there are quite a few old cemeteries scattered across its boroughs. The city’s first Dutch settlers are buried in graveyards that date back to the 17th century.
The Old Gravesend Cemetery in Brooklyn is one of the oldest of those. The area around it was first established in 1643. The first mention of Old Gravesend itself was in a will dated 1658. So while the cemetery’s founding date isn’t precisely known, it likely came about in the 1640s. In total, there are 379 gravestones at the site. City officials have been working on renovating the stones. Upkeep is costly, but the history that comes with it is immeasurable.
The cemetery’s most famous resident is (probably) Lady Deborah Moody. She was the surrounding settlement’s founder and first settler. In fact, she was the first woman to establish a community of Dutch immigrants in all of New England. Well off during her life, Moody originally left Holland to settle in Massachusetts. But once there, she clashed with the Puritans. They didn’t like her belief in adult baptism. And her work to convert people was viewed as unseemly. So they cast her out, and she traveled down to New York.
At the time, the area was known as New Amsterdam and had a heavily Dutch population. Moody fit right in and settled in the Gravesend area of modern-day Brooklyn. But as well known as she was at the time, it’s unclear whether Moody is buried in the graveyard in her adopted home. It’s probable, but historians have no definitive proof of her burial there. Considering the age of the burial ground, it’s likely that the mystery will never be solved.[1]
Much like New York City, Boston’s bustle is forever moving forward. And much like New York City, Boston has its own incredible past. The Massachusetts city is full of old cemeteries, just like others up and down the Eastern Seaboard too. In Boston, one of the oldest is the Granary Burying Ground. That name was officially christened in 1737, but the cemetery site was around nearly a full century earlier. For over 200 years, until the 1880s, notable Bostonians were buried in the Granary Ground. In total, about 5,000 people were laid to rest on the site. Not all the grave markers have lasted the test of time, though. Today, officials estimate about 2,300 stones are still in order.
The disheveled history of those headstones took an interesting turn in the 1800s. In the middle of that century, Bostonians were frustrated with the disorder of the grounds. So, they set about a years-long project to rearrange and set right thousands of headstones. Some were moved and misplaced. Others were accidentally destroyed in the clean-up.
Today, the site is far more orderly. However, it’s unclear whether every headstone is actually in its original spot. Nevertheless, the Granary Burying Ground keeps on playing the hits. Paths inside the cemetery take scores of visitors on an incredible tour. Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere, and Crispus Attucks are all buried in the cemetery. American history truly rests in the Granary Burying Ground.[2]
New York and Boston hold historic cemeteries, but they aren’t the only ancient graveyards in America. In fact, there are far older burial grounds scattered elsewhere across the U.S. And the oldest of them all can be found in Texas, of all places! In the 1970s, historians found an ancient Brazos River burial ground. Today, it is known as the Ernest Witte Site.
Archaeological evidence suggests the area was first used as a cemetery nearly 5,000 years ago. Scientists believe the final burials there happened around AD 1500. Some of these fossils were buried with primitive stone tools. More recent burials came with the presence of shell jewelry, carved stone knives, and animal skulls. The site is now a treasure trove of archaeological information about life in pre-contact America.
The story behind the burial site’s name is its own fascinating tale. Ernest Witte was a young boy growing up in rural Texas in the 1930s. One day, in the middle of the Great Depression, Witte and his brother were rooting around an area near the Brazos River. Accidentally, they uncovered some fossils. Not knowing what they found, they kept digging. Slowly but surely, they uncovered more ancient artifacts. But here’s where it gets really crazy: The brothers never told anyone about it!
For decades, Ernest kept the site a secret. Finally, in 1974, he reached out to the Texas Archaeological Survey. Shocked scientists flocked to the site and began digging. They’ve since found the remains of roughly 250 people at the site. The historical value has been immense. But it was nearly lost to history forever![3]
West Virginia boasts its own ancient burial site. Grave Creek Mound sits in the far north part of the state, close to the Ohio border. The nearby town of Moundsville is named for it. And if you haven’t already guessed by now, the burial site is one big mound. There’s more to it than that, though.
Archaeologists have determined the graves contained within date back to about 250 BC. They are the graves of members of the local Adena tribe. When the culture was thriving, the Adena buried their dead in these raised mounds. The sheer size of the Grave Creek Mound is stunning. Scientists believe tribe members moved nearly 57,000 tons of soil to create the hill. The Adena also built smaller mounds set near the large earthen dome. In those, they placed meaningful trinkets and mementos like jewelry and religious items. For centuries, the site was their solemn way to honor the dead.
Sadly, looters got to Grave Creek Mound before archaeologists did. While science has preserved many things from the dirt structure, many more have been lost to history. Through the 18th and 19th centuries, looters raided the smaller mounds. They took trinkets, sea shells, ivory beads, copper bracelets, and other things that had been left centuries before. Thankfully, some items remained. Plus, layers of burials within the mound itself gave archaeologists plenty to learn.
Today, historians have been able to piece together a lot about the Adena despite these setbacks. But much of the mound’s earthly items remain a mystery. Researchers wonder what they missed out on after decades of grave robberies.[4]
St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 may be the most memorable graveyard on this list. It’s a striking sight to see. Rows of above-ground tombs dot the tightly-packed cemetery. It is full of historic New Orleans flavor and mystery. Stories of haunted spirits and rumors of ghastly ghosts abound. The cemetery isn’t the oldest in New Orleans, but it’s close. It was first built way back in 1789. A series of fires and a brutal epidemic had just ravaged the Big Easy. City officials were worried existing cemeteries couldn’t hold all the dead. So, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 was created.
At first, the dead were actually buried underground. But in 1803, New Orleans levied a law ordering all new burials must be done above ground. Since its founding, the low-lying city has been subjected to waves of flooding. Having a bunch of human remains wash up was fast becoming a public health nightmare. And so the tradition of the raised tombs began.
Just like Old Gravesend in NYC, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 has a notable soul inside. Marie Laveau was born in New Orleans in 1801 to a Creole mother. As an adult, she worked in town as a hairdresser. But she was far more famous in the region for her side gig as a voodoo priestess. People in New Orleans swore by the spells she cast and the mystical powers she supposedly held.
Before she died in 1881, Marie was a local legend. When she was buried in St. Louis Cemetery, locals still tried to seek favor from her spirit. For decades after, mourners came to the graveyard to visit her tomb. Once there, they would paint large Xs on the tomb door. The city made the practice illegal, but that didn’t stop the superstition. Even today, Laveau’s legend lives on.[5]
The North Burial Ground has been in Providence, Rhode Island, since about 1700. Long before America was a nation, settlers came to Rhode Island. On the north side of its historic urban center, planners set aside 45 acres for a cemetery. One of the first burials was that of a prominent settler named Samuel Whipple. Over the next few years, many more locals followed. Eventually, the North Burial Ground became the place to lay the city’s elite leaders and residents to rest.
Over the next century, Providence consolidated other burial grounds. Historically, well-to-do families buried their dead on their own plots of land. But as Providence grew, that custom became inefficient. So in 1785, the city’s elite residents exhumed the bodies of many of their ancestors and elders. All the remains were carefully carted away and re-buried in the North Burial Ground. In the decades after, many more prominent citizens were laid to rest in the cemetery. Since then, the graveyard has undergone many renovations. Further grave relocations have swept in too. In the 1980s, the city even (briefly) lost a headstone after a car accident ran aground in a corner of the cemetery.
Over the years, many high-profile people have been buried within. Veterans of both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War rest there. More recently, famous Americans like pioneering outdoorswoman Annie Smith Peck and early goth poet Sarah Helen Whitman are buried there too. And today, the North Burial Ground still accepts new burials. That is rare for a 300-year-old cemetery! But the site is still active. It takes in about 200 sets of remains every year. And every year, newly-deceased Providence residents add their own life stories to the hallowed ground.[6]
Whenever one says “Salem,” the implication is clear: witchcraft. The Massachusetts town was famously the supposed center of witchcraft in the 17th century. But the city has ghost stories far older than that! In fact, Salem’s Charter Street Cemetery predates the witch trials by more than six decades. The burial ground, which is known to locals as Old Burying Point, was first mentioned in written documents in 1637. Historians now think the context of that reference indicates it was around long before that. So while its founding year is unclear, this analysis suggests Old Burying Point is the oldest European cemetery in America.
The oldest surviving headstone on site belongs to a woman named Doraty Cromwell. She died in Salem in 1673. That her gravestone has survived this long is a miracle. Early American memorials were usually made out of wood. Thus, most haven’t survived centuries of winter snow, spring rain, and summer sun. Before Cromwell, it’s impossible to know who else was laid to rest at Old Burying Point. Thankfully for genealogists, grave markers have long since switched to stone.
Historians do know one thing, though: Salem’s supposed witches were not buried at the Charter Street Cemetery. They were put on trial very close by in 1692. And Old Burying Point was already well-established as the city’s cemetery by then. But those found guilty of practicing witchcraft wouldn’t have been given a public burial in an esteemed location. It’s far more likely they were buried secretly by sympathetic family members. If no one stepped up, these accused witches were thrown into unmarked graves near their trial sites. For them, a well-regarded rest at Old Burying Point was never in the cards.[7]
Decades before American colonists kicked off their anti-British rumblings back east, Spanish explorers were making their way through the southwest. In 1629, they founded the San Estévan del Rey Mission in what is now western New Mexico. Back then, the land belonged to the Acoma Pueblo people. The Spanish intended for the mission to bring Catholicism to the natives. Part of the Spaniards’ hopes centered on the afterlife: They wanted indigenous people to follow the church’s burial customs. For decades, the Spanish tried to attract the Acoma Pueblo to their lifestyle. The visitors had some success until the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Then, for two decades, the natives took control of the mission and mostly shut down the Spanish incursion.
As for the cemetery on site, its creation is a story unto itself. The area sits on a mesa of bare rock with little topsoil. Opportunities for agriculture are sparse and limited. Even worse, in-ground burial is next to impossible. The Spanish solved this by forcing natives to carry tons of soil up the rocks to spread on top. Once the covered area was deep enough, it was packed down. Then, Spanish settlers could adequately bury their dead at the mission.
Today, the cemetery consists of five of these levels. Some reach 50 feet (15 meters) above what used to be the natural rocky ground. Different settlers and natives throughout history are buried there. The Acoma people got their way in the end too. Even though the mission is of Catholic origin, locals managed to sneak in a few of their traditions over the centuries.
Today, mission visitors can see sculpted faces inside the cemetery’s walls. These are guardians that carry native spirits safely into the afterlife. One section of the graveyard wall also has a large hole. There, spirits are said to freely leave the site to take on eternal existence after death.[8]
For nearly two centuries, New York City had a little-known cemetery meant for Black residents. Both enslaved and free Black people were buried there as early as the 1630s. The ground was active until about 1800. Then, the city stopped using it. Eventually, it was paved over and repurposed. For nearly 200 years, it was forgotten. Then, in 1991, construction began on a new officer tower along Broadway Avenue. As the ground underwent excavation, mass graves were found. Suddenly, the construction project became a critical preservation scene.
Archaeologists rushed in and supervised the work. Further excavations found the graveyard covered more than six acres of space. Shocked at the discovery, historians termed it the African Burial Ground. Notable Black people are thought to be buried there. That list likely includes Juan Rodrigues, the first free Black man in Manhattan, who arrived in the city in 1613.
Judging by the size of the area, historians estimate more than 15,000 people were laid to rest there. The remains include the first generations of slaves transported against their will to America. Today, it is the earliest known African cemetery in the United States. Thankfully, by 2003, all the excavated remains were placed in hand-carved coffins and properly reinterred.[9]
The Myles Standish Burial Ground calls itself the oldest “maintained” cemetery in the United States. As we’ve already seen with some dubious dates on this list, that may be up for debate. But there’s no question this cemetery is very old. It appears to have been first established as early as 1638. Its location in the Massachusetts city of Duxbury has historical meaning too. The area is close to where the Mayflower first made land from England early in the 17th century. So it should be no surprise to learn that many of the Mayflower’s notable pioneering passengers are buried there.
Other notable burials include he for whom the cemetery is named. Military commander Myles Standish was buried in it after he died near Duxbury in 1656. The man who played such a key role in protecting the Pilgrims during their early years in America is forever honored in the graveyard. In fact, his body has since been exhumed (twice!) to be honored with more significant memorials.
In addition to Standish, the site hosts many old Pilgrim grave markers. They include some fascinating examples of historic Puritan imagery. As a group, they were obsessed with mortality. And boy, do their gravestones show it. Gravestone designs of unsettling angels, smiling death’s heads, spooky skulls, and outlined coffins all confront modern visitors. Creepy![10]
You didn’t think we forgot about Cahokia, did you? While grave mounds in West Virginia and New Mexico made this list, they don’t compare to the most iconic of all. Centuries ago, southern Illinois’s Cahokia was the largest settlement in America. The sprawling indigenous city had everything. At its peak from about 600 to 1350, more than 15,000 people lived there.
Cahokia had large residential neighborhoods, open spaces for events, large marketplaces, and even a permanent agricultural area. It also had a series of notable grave mounds. Today, historians believe the man-made hills were used for several purposes. Burying the dead was foremost among them, of course. But Cahokia residents also held religious ceremonies on the mounds and worshiped native gods from the top.
Today, the biggest of these hills is known as Mound 72. Archaeologists have been working on that site since the 1960s. Over the years, they have preserved the remains of more than 270 people. Some were interred in mass graves. Others were given more ornate burials. Those buried in the most shallow graves appear to show signs of violent death.
Interestingly, scientists believe those are also the most recent burials, dating to roughly 1300. Considering Cahokia was abandoned at some point in the 14th century, archaeologists think these burial mound findings point to a violent regional war that broke up the big city.[11]
]]>In 1972, Scottish biologist Ivan T. Sanderson described a new geography of the globe: an “energetic planetary grid” based on twelve ‘vile vortices’ or ‘devil’s graveyards’ where “funny things happen”. The Bermuda Triangle was the first on his list. According to Sanderson, hot and cold air and sea currents in this and other regions create electromagnetic anomalies that ultimately cause ships and planes to fail.
Numbering six in the northern hemisphere and six in the south, the vortices mostly lie in the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. The only two that don’t are the North and South Poles, but Sanderson himself was dismissive of these.
While the theory seems kooky, it didn’t come from nowhere. It was actually part of a wider parallel “science”. In fact, it seems to have elaborated on copies of two “ancient” maps – the Piri Reis and Buache – found in 1929 but dated (allegedly as copies of earlier versions) to 1523 and 1737 respectively. These featured similar geometry to Sanderson’s, as well as a detailed survey of Antarctica not possible until 1958. In turn, Sanderson’s theory inspired many others – like the three Soviet scientists who added 50 more sites to his list.
OK, so it is kooky. But as alternative science and history grow in popularity, you may hear a lot more about it. Agree with him or not, here’s a quick primer on his ten devil’s graveyards – listed in the order he found them.
Known for its turbulent, unpredictable weather patterns and disappearing ships and aircraft, the Bermuda Triangle is the best studied site on this list. It’s the one that got Sanderson thinking. Although the official line – which refuses to even acknowledge the Bermuda Triangle – says there are no more disappearances here than anywhere else, there are many strange things about it. For example, true and magnetic north sometimes align in the region. It’s also the source of many hurricanes and, while much of it is shallow, parts around Puerto Rico are the deepest in the whole Atlantic. In any case, Sanderson had just one incident in mind: Flight 19.
On December 5, 1945, five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers vanished without a trace shortly after taking off from Fort Lauderdale. Allegedly, the pilots were able to maintain radio contact with each other for a time – and could be heard wondering where they were and why the ocean looked wrong. A Martin PBM Mariner dispatched to find the missing aircraft also disappeared – according to Sanderson, within 15 minutes.
Although “debunked” by Larry Kusche, Flight 19 was almost two decades before the words “Bermuda Triangle” came into use. An even earlier incident in March 1918 saw the unexplained (to this day) disappearance of Navy collier USS Cyclops – the wreckage of which has never been found.
The next site to get Sanderson’s attention lies off the east coast of Japan. Also known as the Formosa or Dragon’s Triangle, the Devil’s Sea sits at the intersection of three ocean ridges. Like the Bermuda Triangle, it has – allegedly – been the site of numerous disappearances, attributed by Sanderson to hot and cold currents.
The most famous was the research vessel the No. 5 Kaiyo-Maru, which disappeared in September 1953 along with its 31 crew members. But, as Skeptoid points out, since it was in the vicinity of an erupting underwater volcano – and debris from the wreckage was found – this isn’t that much of a mystery.
That said, other ships – including military and fishing vessels – are also said to have vanished. For example, Sanderson was surprised when, appearing on The Dick Cavett Show to debate his theories with skeptic Arthur Godfrey, the latter had his own tales to share. Among them were firsthand reports of instrument failure while flying over the region.
At Tindouf, Algeria – on the edge of a dune sea – lies the next devil’s graveyard on the list. Linked to “mysterious plane disappearances over the Sahara,” this oasis rich in minerals is where many birds spend the winter.
The specific location varies depending on the source, with El Eglab (300 kilometers southeast) and the mysterious Jedars – the Algerian pyramids or megaliths – (1400 kilometers northeast) being the most commonly mentioned. Considering the size of the Bermuda Triangle, though (at least 805,000 sq. km.), this actually does make sense.
In fact, Sanderson’s interest in the region was originally piqued by reports of two submarines and four small vessels disappearing in the Mediterranean – not in the Sahara but off the north coast of the country.
Shortly after identifying the Algerian “vortex,” Sanderson got a letter saying planes carrying gold were disappearing over Afghanistan. Some of the gold had been found but there was still no trace of the planes. Of course, this being the Afghani-Pakistan border, it was hardly a case for The X-Files. But what was surprising was that the sender of the letter had no idea Sanderson was looking into this stuff. Needless to say, the coincidence led Sanderson to his next devil’s graveyard.
Centered on the Sindh-Balochistan border north of Karachi, Pakistan, the area he settled on isn’t too far south (100 kilometers or so, as the crow flies) of Mohenjo-Daro – an ancient capital of the Indus Valley Civilization. Although he didn’t mention it in his article, the “lost city” – obviously once luxurious and powerful despite its absence of palaces or temples – remains a mystery to archaeologists. We still don’t know who lived there, or why, around 1900 BC, they seem to have disappeared. Allegedly, model aircraft have also been found in the city.
Proximity to Mohenjo-Daro aside, though, this site was chosen mainly because it fit the emerging pattern of Sanderson’s planetary grid. Interestingly, it’s also linked by a fault line to the Algerian devil’s graveyard.
References to “Hamakulia volcano” appear solely in articles about Sanderson. It doesn’t exist in the real world. In fact, there’s no known volcano by any name at the coordinates for this vile vortex. Nevertheless, having identified four sites along the 26.57°N line of longitude – each separated by 72° – the next one had to be here.
Allegedly planes have disappeared over this region. Arthur Godfrey from The Dick Cavett Show once told Sanderson that an experimental flight he was meant to be on but missed vanished while he followed by radar. And a pilot flying a plane full of passengers over the zone claimed to have lost comms for 560 kilometers. When contact finally returned, he was shocked to be told that no time had passed whatsoever.
Intriguing as these tales are, Hawaii’s volcanoes are mysterious enough as it is. We still don’t really know how they form. Being in the middle of the Pacific Plate, thousands of kilometers from any fault lines, they don’t fit with what we know about how volcanoes form.
Turning his attention to the southern hemisphere, Sanderson placed his next vortex southeast of Rio de Janiero. The South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), the point where the Earth’s magnetic field is at its weakest, is – unlike the Bermuda Triangle and so on – officially recognized as a place where “funny things happen”. NASA has called it a “pothole in space”. It’s where charged particles from the Sun are able to penetrate closer to the surface and, as a result, cause problems for orbiting spacecraft.
Instruments aboard the International Space Station, Skylab, NASA space shuttles, and SpaceX’s Dragon craft are all prone to glitches and premature aging. The Hubble Space Telescope is also affected, spending nearly 15 percent of its orbit here. Even astronauts have issues – reporting weird ‘shooting stars’ in their vision.
Although the anomaly seems not to affect life on the surface, Sanderson claimed to know of “alarming disappearances” in the region. It also appears to be growing. According to NASA, the SAA is “expanding westward” and splitting into “two lobes, creating additional challenges for satellite missions.”
Though focused on the Eswatini town of Luyengo on the Maputo River, this devil’s graveyard has been linked to the ruins of Great Zimbabwe – 900 kilometers to the north. It’s unclear what “alarming disappearances … off the southeast coast of South Africa” Sanderson had in mind here, but the ancient city is a mystery in itself.
Built around 900 years ago, it was once a global center of trade and religion. Artefacts from as far as China have been found there, along with copper crosses thought to have been used as a currency. The ruins themselves have features that we still don’t understand. One of these – “the largest single prehistoric structure in sub-Saharan Africa” – is a 10-meter-high, 5-meter-wide conical tower, surrounded by a wall that’s 250 meters long and 11 meters high.
The city of Great Zimbabwe was thought so advanced by early (racist European) explorers that it could never have been constructed by Africans. Instead, they believed it was evidence of a “civilized” (i.e. white) African nation. In any case, for reasons unknown, it was abandoned in the 15th century.
The Loyalty Islands are an archipelago 1,600 kilometers east of Australia. Known for cyclones and earthquakes, it’s no surprise that a ship carrying 75 passengers once mysteriously disappeared here. Part of this has to do with the 1200-kilometer New Hebrides Trench, which reaches depths of more than 7,500 meters in places and remains largely unexplored. What we do know about it is that it’s ecologically very different from any other deep sea trench.
Taking these features together as one devil’s graveyard, it’s interesting that an entire landmass also “disappeared” here. Sandy Island, which has appeared on maps (including Google Earth) for many decades, has long been assumed to exist. Someone must have seen it at some point. But when scientists set out to visit in 2012, they found only open ocean – 1,400 kilometers deep.
Sanderson found the next vortex by measuring 72 degrees from the South Atlantic Anomaly, which led him to Easter Island – and the ,5900 kilometer Easter Fracture Zone on which it sits.
There’s not a lot to be said about this one in the way of documented disappearances, except of course for the island civilization that built the mysterious Moai. The mainstream theory for how these people disappeared is their precipitation of ecological collapse. Once they’d cut down all the trees – for agriculture, fuel, and transporting their iconic statues – the soil depleted and people starved. It’s thought rats prevented regeneration by eating all the seeds and disease-ridden European explorers killed off any survivors.
Alternative theories, meanwhile, suggest the statues are alive or left by UFOs.
72 degrees from the Loyalty Islands is Wharton Basin – “an area of deadliness,” Sanderson heard – in the northeast Indian Ocean, 400 kilomdgdfx off Sumatra. It’s here, from a seafloor riddled with fracture zones, that many large earthquakes originate.
It’s also where Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 disappeared in 2014. Pings from the black box narrowed the plane down to a 32 by 16-kilometer stretch before falling silent forever. It’s thought the Boeing 777, which disappeared in March of that year, lies buried in the Basin’s silt floor. However, the region is largely uncharted, the depth abyssal, and, despite early optimism, the wreckage still hasn’t been found.
More recently, we’ve learned Flight 370 didn’t fly straight into the sea but circled for 20 minutes first – similar to the ‘holding pattern’ while waiting to land at an airport. A number of explanations have been offered for this: The pilot may have been communicating with the Malaysian government, or checking to see if he was followed, or simply thinking things through. But what this new information makes clear is that the pilot – or a pilot – wasn’t unconscious as previously thought but “deliberately flew the plane into oblivion”. We just don’t know why.
Just to conclude, the North and South Poles are – as mentioned – the final two devil’s graveyards. Suggested by professional pilots, they’re places where time is “a little off”. While Sanderson did include them in his grid, he was also mostly dismissive, attributing the phenomenon to simple disorientation caused by compass malfunction. Which makes one wonder – is his skepticism here (which wasn’t out of character) enough to lend credence to his theory?
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