Yes. This is one of the headstones at Rock Point Cemetery. They certainly had a sense of humor.
A few
miles west of Gold Hill, Ore., right off of Rogue River Highway, is Rock Point
Cemetery.
According
to locals and a number of paranormal investigators, it’s haunted.
There was
once a small community call Rock Point and it had a post office along with a train
station. Some buildings reportedly still stand but the cemetery remains. Rock
Point Cemetery is more that 26 acres in size and has an Independent Order of
Odd Fellows section and the rest, in the past, has been called the Pioneer
Cemetery. IOOF members maintained their section while the rest of it fell into
a state of disarray. Eventually, Gold Hill citizens banded together and started
cleaning the cemetery.
Over the years,
a number of stories about paranormal activity have swirled around the cemetery,
even to the point that paranormal investigators and curiosity seekers from all
over the state have come to visit.
One of the
most well-known accounts is about a hooded figure, carrying a lantern and
sometimes bathed in green light, that roams the cemetery. When people
approach the hooded figure, it vanishes into the night. There are a pair of
crypts located in the cemetery and there are stories of both surrounded by green
mists or even green fire. Strange lights, eerie sounds and – again – that green
mists were experienced by nighttime visitors . . . typically, local young
people who went to the cemetery as a dare or even for teenaged romantic escapades.
As I was
working on my first Rock Point article, I discovered that a common dare was for
someone to lie across one of the crypts and wait for the green fog or flames to
happen. Some stories have it that as young people drove through the cemetery, their
car windows would crack or shatter due to an unseen force.
Both
sextons and members of the Gold Hill Historical Society claim that people
wearing Victorian era clothing have been seen wandering the cemetery – then disappearing.
One such spectral figure, a woman, is usually accompanied by the strong
fragrance of lilacs.
It is a
beautiful place during the fall and spring, thanks to the local cleanup
efforts. A number of the gravesites are fenced off and have been decorated with
ornaments and toys.
As I
researched Rock Point’s history, I discovered who the hooded figure was.
At some
point in the late 19th Century, a Civil War veteran moved to the
Gold Hill area. On some nights, he would put on his military longcoat, grab a
lantern and go to the cemetery. He would visit the gravesites of other veterans,
checking on them and even talking, as if having a conversation with the dead.
Many years
after his death, it appears that the old veteran still patrols the cemetery
grounds.
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