New Orleans Cemetery |
I will treat it all as fact. We read about the warnings about visiting the cemeteries on your own and never after dark. Generally, if you attend with a tour you are at your safest from muggings and related incidents.
Burial plots in New Orleans are shallow due to the high water table. Just a few feet down, the earth becomes soggy, and the graves fill with water. Learning from trial and error, early settlers would find the caskets floating to the surface, even popping out of ground.
The older cemeteries are mostly located nearer to the French Quarter, for the same reason this area was settled first. Higher ground.
Originally founded by the French, the colony was ceded to the Spanish Empire in the Treaty of Paris. It reverted back to French control in 1801 and was then sold to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Many of the plots were as a result of following the Spanish tradition of above ground vaults.
From their 1989 album Up To Here this is New Orleans is Sinking from The Tragically Hip
Mike and Nicky over at We Work for Cheese have
I'd love to visit New Orleans and wander through the cemeteries. Great song by the way.
ReplyDeleteDuf, The day after I arrived back in Montreal from my very first trip to New Orleans, I went to see The Hip at the Spectrum. Ties in really well.
DeleteI've been to New Orleans a couple times, and heard the warnings about the cemeteries. We didn't go, but took a horse and buggy tour instead, so we actually saw some of the iron gates. Bourbon Street was interesting, too.
ReplyDeleteWe wanted to see where the locals went and of course we saw the famous places, Tipitina's, Mother's...
DeleteNever been to New Orleans and never heard about the warnings. Interesting.
ReplyDelete