This historic old graveyard has been around ever since 1850, even though no one has been buried there since approximately 1900.

In 1861, this little patch of graveyard land, which sits at the corner of Pioneer Road and Division Street, was donated to Reverend Frederic Baraga with the strict specifications that the land was to ONLY be used for "free burial ground and for no other purpose".

But the graveyard was filling up with little burial ground left. Then in 1897, along comes the new Holy Cross Cemetery, whose caretakers coaxed the church parishioners to dig up their dead and move 'em to the new grounds. Some locals were talked into it, while others refused, leaving their deceased family and friends to stay where they were.

100.7 WITL logo
Get our free mobile app

Even though a good number of bodies stayed in the original grounds, caretaking was ignored, and soon the old graveyard was overgrown with weeds, brush, new trees, and fallen dead trees.

Headstones from the old cemetery are in the Holy Cross, but many of the bodies remain unmarked in the old cemetery. Thus comes the legend of a haunting.

Up until 1925, it was estimated that 165 bodies were moved. In 1987, the remaining tombstones were moved to Holy Cross, but some of the bodies were left in the ground.
The old graveyard currently sits off Pioneer Road, down a little dirt trail that leads back into the woods, where – it's said – the unmarked dead still lie.

There is a mobile home park across the road, of which there are a handful of residents who claim to hear the moans and cries of the nameless dead, whenever there's a strong wind that blows through the forest trees. Wailing, sobbing, and grieving for their relocated families and friends.....

The old cemetery is now intended as a place of contemplation, meditation, and remembrance of those old Marquette pioneers who were/are still there. So if you visit, be respectful.

OLD CATHOLIC CEMETERY

MORE QUIRKY MICHIGANIA:

Inside the Haunted Eloise Asylum

Jeepers Creepers Re-Visited

The Ghost Town & Cemetery of Shackhuddle

THANKS TO:
Michigan.org

More From 100.7 WITL