What Can You Do?
What can you do, as an individual, to promote the welfare of the old cemeteries?
If you visit a cemetery, clean up what you see. Pick up limbs and debris and toss it into the forest. Pack out any litter or trash you find.
Consider becoming a National Park volunteer. Volunteer information is available at any of the National Park visitor centers.
Consider making a donation to one of the cemetery maintenance associations, such as the Cades Cove Preservation Association or the North Shore Cemetery Association.
If you are not SPECIFICALLY trained in how to clean a vintage headstone, make no attempt to clean one. No bleach, no cleaners, no wire brushes. These old stones are fragile, and well-intentioned attempts to clean them can do more harm than good.
Forget what your grade school teacher taught you - do not take rubbings. Again, these old stones are far more fragile than they may look, and the last thing they need is for you and I to scrape a blunt object across their surfaces just to satisfy our own selfish interests. If you have difficulty reading a faint inscription, try spritzing the stone with water (or simply pour water over the surface). In the above photo, the left side of the stone has been wetted down.
Notify an emergency contact before entering the backcountry. Tell them where you intend to go and when you intend to return. Call or text them when you emerge from the backcountry (or when you first return to cell coverage). Outline in advance at what point they should notify the authorities if you do not return.
We discourage hiking into the backcountry alone. Do not attempt off-trail hiking unless you have educated yourself to the risks involved and have acquired the appropriate skills to do it safely.
When you hike in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, assume you are in the presence of bears, even if you do not see them. Bear-preparedness leaflets are available at all National Park visitor centers. Educate yourself before you hit the trail.
Record your own family stories and interview your elders while you can. Many of us regret not having done so. Record as much as you possibly can, including the location of the graves of your ancestors.
Make a point to visit some of the old cemeteries within the National Park, perhaps some that involve a little walking off the beaten path. (Our GoSmokies posts include detailed directions for locating these places.) Pay your respects. Remember these long-ago lives. Your act of remembrance does have meaning.
One interesting practice we have seen in a few backcountry cemeteries is the ritual of placing a coin, interesting small stone or other remembrance on a headstone as a gesture that someone came by to pay their respects. Few of the older fieldstones have surfaces level enough to consider this. This is sometimes touching in a remote cemetery where no one ever visits, but might become intrusive if practiced in any of the more popular gravesites. Let common sense and decency be your guides.
GoSmokies member "Dan G" posted the following comment to one of our blogs:
"One of the sweetest gestures I've seen happened at the Old Elkmont Cemetery when my grandson was 5 or 6. We had hiked over the old path from Fighting Creek Gap and much to my dismay, he never leaves the car without something in his hand that he doesn't need and I invariably end up carrying for him. This time it was a bag of hard candy. At the cemetery I watched him walk from infant grave to child grave around the cemetery placing a single Jolly Rancher atop the stones. I said nothing as I briefly considered mentioning something to him about litter. Seeing as I was tearing up a bit, I said nothing. After we left, I asked him why he did it (he does not give up his sweets easily) and he told me he didn't know, but he thought those children weren't as lucky as he was, and they would have liked it. He might not have thought he knew why, but he knew."
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