Anyone ever been to Elder Ballou cemetery in cumberland?
ive never been personally but you're post has gotten me intrested enough to head down their. it looks like there's alot of underground spots that along with uber old graves should make an intresting adventure.
I'm going there tomorrow! I'll tell you about it when I come back from my trips!
soooo
I went to the Ballou cemetery today, it was kinda interesting there was this huge mound with 5 gates looked like they would lead to an underground catacombs but they were sealed up with stone and cement (I've heard from a local they sealed them up 5 years ago) buut you can squeeze through the gates and each entrance goes in about 10 feet before the seal.
As for the yard, tons of graves were really withered down like, to the point where they stood only inches from the ground.. this makes me wonder what kind of stone was used to make the grave stone.. I know limestone is a quarried stone in the area, but I'm unsure what kind of stone the gravestones that are withered are. Found a sunken grave or two one almost as deep as a tub, and the rest of the graves were pretty cool looking.
I'll have pics up tomorrow.
I just found out talking to my girlfriend that the the mound with the gates were used for holding cells for bodies during the winters, and that by 'sealed' they meant sealed by the steel wire doors that are now there cuz 5 years ago the cells were open with nothing to seal them.. not very sealed in my case, especially if you weight 130 like me XD squeezed right through them!
If you go there, you'll notice a rusted hinge with a slab of stone door hanging off of it, looks like a piece of original door.
So, just to clarify, the mound o' doors weren't actually catacombs but winter holding cells, cuz the dirt would be to hard to dig up during the winter.. so they'd throw bodies in there until the ground was soft enough to properly bury the bodies. :ph34r:
So, I had to correct myself when viewing my photos again.. 4 gates, 4 chambers.. not 5 >.<
As I said, photos will be up sooner or later.
photossss :ph34r:
nice...appropriate weather for a cemetary tour i guess!
Quote from: StealthUnited on August 25, 2010, 06:03:37 PM
soooo
I went to the Ballou cemetery today, it was kinda interesting there was this huge mound with 5 gates looked like they would lead to an underground catacombs but they were sealed up with stone and cement (I've heard from a local they sealed them up 5 years ago) buut you can squeeze through the gates and each entrance goes in about 10 feet before the seal.
As for the yard, tons of graves were really withered down like, to the point where they stood only inches from the ground.. this makes me wonder what kind of stone was used to make the grave stone.. I know limestone is a quarried stone in the area, but I'm unsure what kind of stone the gravestones that are withered are. Found a sunken grave or two one almost as deep as a tub, and the rest of the graves were pretty cool looking.
I'll have pics up tomorrow.
I have been there a couple of times. As I understand it, many of the head stones are made of Cumberlandite, a low grade iron ore, mineralogically a form of the semiprecious gem stone hematite. I have not tested it but supposedly, if you hold a magnet to some of the head stones it will either stick or pull on it. I would guess a good way to test would be to place a rare earth magnet on a piece of styrofoam and put that in a bowl of water next to one of the head stones and if it floats on over to the stone it has some iron in it. Orrrrr, bring your metal detector. Not too surprising that they would do this, considering the world's largest deposit of Cumberlandite (comprising of about 80% of the world's supply) is immediately behind the cemetery on conservation lands, hence the name "Iron Mine Hill." Rumor has it that native Cumberlandites mined the area for iron ore to make cannons and cannon balls for the French/Indian war but the idea was eventually abandoned due to the poor grade of iron ore. A second operation was set up in about the same spot around 1900-1910 and that too was abandoned. This was mentioned in a recent article of the Valley Breeze. TMI?
New user and posting in an old topic but one that got me to this site. I came here in a round about way from geocaching.com because of a cache near the one that is at this cemetery. There's another one nearby that has to do with Cumberlandite a mineral found only in Rhode Island. I once took photos of a band one night about 1 years ago at this place before all of the crypts were closed. They didn't come out well. Neat place. Old stones. Will be visiting soon I hope but I don't get out much so we'll see.
Cumberlandite sounds really fascinating. Welcome to IB! As you can see, we rarely post here but occasionally old faces will pop in and say hello.
hello.