The Story Behind This Ghost Town Cemetery In North Carolina Will Chill You To The Bone
By Robin Jarvis
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Published April 09, 2018
Imagine having your loved ones buried in a cemetery you can’t get to. There are many times a year you may want to visit the grave of your dearly departed loved ones, like their birthday, or holidays – or ANY day, for that matter. What about after a hurricane or flooding? You’d definitely want to check on them then, right?
At this little ghost town cemetery it's just not easily possible, even though loved ones are still being interred here.
That's because this little cemetery, although not abandoned, sits in a little ghost town you can only get to by boat.
The ghost town of Lukens was located near the community of South River - and across the South River, a tributary of the much larger Neuse River.
Even more challenging is the fact that the ghost town (and the cemetery) is on land you can't access via public roads. The only way to get to the the ghost town of Lukens is by way of boat.
Lukens sprang up in the late 1800s. In its heyday, there were approximately 300 residents.
In the early 1900s, a Philadelphia businessman started a logging company that employed many of the residents of Lukens.
But in 1933, a massive hurricane hit the outer banks and wiped out half of the homes in Lukens.
Just eleven years later, another hurricane nearly finished the job.
Soon after, the town dwindled to its last two residents, who refused to leave.
The two holdouts were two older women, according to a local newspaper report.
Today, the ghost town is all but gone. The homes and buildings have been wiped out by storms, floods and other actions of the wrath of Mother Nature.
All that remains is Lukens Cemetery, where family members are still being laid to rest when the time comes. Reportedly each May, some family members organize a big spring picnic at the cemetery. It's a bring your own food kind of affair that reconnects loved ones with departed family members. Of course, the only way to get there is by boat.
Can you imagine not being able to visit your departed loved ones whenever you like – unless you have a boat?).
To see the opposite of this hard-to-get-to cemetery, check out this graveyard found in the parking lot of a shopping mall in North Carolina.
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