Abandoned Cemetery of Evart

     A driver drives slowly on south River rd. in Evart.  The mighty Muskegon River is just to the right of them.  A car turns left unto a gated overgrown 2-track road and parks in front of the steel gate.  There is a gap on either side of the gate where a person can squeeze on through and walk up the path up a little hill.  The sounds of twigs snapping and leaves rustling adds to the symphony of birds chirping in the distance.  The sun tries to shine its light through the trees casting a myriad of rays to help illuminate the area.  No signs are present to say where you are walking to but you know what lays up ahead.  The old abandoned cemetery in Evart, Mi., otherwise knows as the Holy Cross Cemetery. 

The entrance to the abandoned cemetery.

     I love walking through cemeteries.  There is something peaceful about it.  As I walk past tombstones I look to see who the person is and how long they lived.  Unfortunately I will sometimes walk past a grave of a young child.   I look at the year and see 1918.  I realize a large flu epidemic was sweeping across the nation at that time.  Could this young child have died from this flu?  I ask myself.  I stand at the gravesite and look around.  95 years prior this child's family stood on this same piece of Earth mourning their loss.  I look at the surroundings and take note of the trees.  I try to imagine some of the younger trees gone and the older tall trees to look smaller.  Was there a reason the family chose this particular spot to bury their child?  Is this child still remembered even after all these years or is the grave and name forgotten about?   I will stand and ponder some of these questions.  I will walk around and note some of the other graves that might have a memorial plaque next to them that says they served their country.  I will look at the dates and see if they died after they served or was their life ended early by the horrors of war.  Some headstones will have neat sayings on them, pictures (either carved into the stone or actual photographs) and some I have even seen with their children's names on the back side of the stone.  Our headstone is one of our last tangible item we leave for others to know that we were here in Earth at one point in history and most of the time we pass away leaving that part up to living family members to decide what to put on it.

     It was a few years after we moved to Osceola County that I read a newspaper article about an organization trying to fix the Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery that sadly slipped from many residence's memory and forgot about.  In the article they talked about how many of the stones were so old that the names and dates were hard to read.  I became very curious to where this cemetery was located and I wanted to check it out for myself.  My husband and I asked around a few businesses to see where the cemetery was located.  We got some help from the library and another place of business gave us a good indication of where to look.  We eventually found it and took the children to go see it, as they also have an enjoyment of visiting cemeteries. 

My daughter, Ashton, trying to figure out one of the hard to read headstones.
Pic taken May 2009



Pic taken May 2009.  My son Halvor and Christian in the background.

Pic taken May 2009

     Walking up the hill we soon start to see headstones popping out from the tall weeds as if they were greeting us on our arrival.  We started walking towards a tombstone when we stumbled into a dip in the ground and lost our footing.  We gained our balance and noticed the unnatural rectangular shape to the dip.  We soon realized that the "dip" in the ground was from the decomposed casket and body.  We quickly stepped up on higher ground.  We looked around and realized there was a whole row of rectangular "dips" that were missing the headstones.  These people are now forever nameless and forgot about.  No one can go back through their genealogy and claim them as a past ancestor and visit their final resting place.  It's sad.  No one should be forgotten about.






One of the family plots. Pic taken May 2009





Pic taken May 2009



     It was easy to tell where a family plot was located by bricks that made a huge square around an area.  Some headstones were still erect within the stone square but others were broken or missing.  One area was even loosely fenced in and a military plaque was placed next to one of their headstones.  One headstone was even handmade which made me wonder if the family didn't have enough funds to purchase a proper headstone.  Ironically, the homemade headstone looks better than the proper made ones. 


  

The writing is still there but it is started to look faded.
Pic taken July 2013
Pic credited to L. Morrone

Guardian Angel placed next to an unknown stone
Pic taken July 2013
Pic credited to L. Morrone

Time weathered away the name on this stone.  You can kind of make
out the dip in front of the stone from the pic.
Pic taken July 2013
Pic credited to L. Morrone

Top part of the grave marker vandalized.
Pic taken July 2013
Pic credited to L. Morrone

Unknown stone
Pic taken July 2013
Pic credited to L. Morrone

Another tombstone that weathered away who was laid at rest there.
Pic taken July 2013
Pic credited to L. Morrone 

    

It was odd how the ferns grew up right over where the body would be.
Pic taken July 2013
Pic credit to L. Morrone

Someone has been maintaining this gravesite. 
Pic taken July 2013
Pic credit to L. Morrone

     How was it that this cemetery be forgotten about?  Good question.  Evart was a logging, transient type of town that was organized in 1872.  Different logging companies would come in, cut their wood and eventually move on.  Some bring their families with them and other set forth on their own.  People died.  If the person was working with the logging camps around the late 1800's and a person perished with no family around they cannot send the body back home.  Refrigeration wasn't that good back then and the body would spoil.  That would not be a pleasant thing for a grieving family to have to deal with.  So they would bury the body in a nearby cemetery.  The area was a new area.  If a husband or wife passes on and they don't have outside family around then the living spouse might take the remaining family back to where they came from to get help in raising the children.  So they move away leaving the deceased loved one behind with no one to tend to the grave. 

     The cemetery didn't start at this location on S. River rd.  The church burned down but the cemetery remained.  In the 1950's GM built an auto plant, Ventra, where the catholic church used to be but the cemetery had to be moved for the parking lot to go in.  Loved ones were contacted to help move the bodies.  Many couldn't be contacted.  Some of the names were misplaced with moving of the bodies and no one was there to help name them.  Whether some remained on that spot and was paved over is unknown but it does leave it up to imagination of what if.  The bodies were then moved over to the spot where they rest now on S. River Rd.  ( N 43° 52' 59.99"  W 85° 17' 30.01" (43.88333, -85.29167)) 

     I still am baffled at how a cemetery that was moved in the 1950's could be forgotten about so quickly.  In the article about the abandoned cemetery it mentioned why the catholic church wasn't tending to this since it was the catholic cemetery.  If I remember correctly the catholic church lost or didn't keep the records of this cemetery and they didn't know they were responsible for it. 

     The best time to view this cemetery would be early spring when the grass is still short and the leaves aren't fully on the trees yet so the sun can shine brightly on the ground.  It also makes it easier to see the "dips" with the grass and weeds kept low.  If anyone does venture out in that direction I ask that you please be respectful and not touch the stones as they are fragile with their age.  Thank you.