Happy Cemtember!

Introducing Sam's Grave Sights, your cemetery-centric travel guide

My mission is to get more people in graveyards

Let me rephrase. I want more tourists to see old cemeteries. Some perks of visiting graveyards on your travels:

1. Free admission

2. Food and soft drinks allowed

3. Beautiful flora

4. Sometimes fauna (flabberghasted to see you in their space)

5. No lines, no [living] crowds

6. Local folk art and symbols

7. Unique surnames to research later

8. Quiet exhibits of ritual and remembering

9. Places to rest your sitz bones

10. Dead leaves, if you’re lucky

I don’t travel for graveyards per se. Cemeteries found their way to me when I needed a reprieve from people, noise, and self-imposed expectations to see and consume as much as possible on a trip.

Graveyards are time capsules that let you find your way back to yourself. They really do ground you. The Victorians picnicked in cemeteries—merging leisure and liturgy, morsels and memorial.

Wherever you go in the U.S., there will be green and grey parks dedicated to those who helped shape the town you’re in. There will also be unmarked or rediscovered burial sites that deserve our deference.

Carving out time to explore cemeteries has helped me establish a deeper connection to the area I’m visiting, and to myself, as I check things off my itinerary.

Memento mori,
Memento manducare

Remember that you have to die,
Remember that you have to eat

This community is for explorers who want to pencil in some trips to U.S. graveyards and good grub. Think Weird U.S. meets 36 Hours. I, Sam, will be your velvet cloaked guide. Thanks for being morbidly curious!

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