Here’s something you don’t learn everyday: there are multiple graves located between the northbound and southbound lanes of Interstate 85 near Gaffney – and you’ve probably driven right by them without ever knowing they existed.
When loved ones pass, deciding where they should be laid for eternal rest is often a difficult decision. Fortunately, for those souls buried in this unique cemetery, they weren't intentionally laid to rest between two very busy highways. We imagine when this cemetery plot was first established it was on a peaceful hilltop where flowers grew wild and the breeze was nearly constant. But in death, as in life, things have a tendency to change...
The few headstones that remain in the Lipscomb-Sarratt Cemetery indicate an initial burial here in the late 1700s, when this land was part of a plantation.
... quite simply do not exist. The only indications of many of the graves in what's nicknamed "the I-85 Median Cemetery" are simply deep impressions in the ground.
A handful of headstones and a multitude of ground impressions are clear signs that the I-85 Median Cemetery is quite large and runs approximately 100 linear feet in between the two busy northbound and southbound lanes. When the road was first constructed, there were no lengthy arguments or debates among family members and the state. Apparently, the state didn't hesitate to leave the graves undisturbed and just go around them.
Want to see it for yourself? You can, but you shouldn't get out your car and wander over. Instead, as you're nearing exit 95, look for the special clump of trees about 100 yards north of the southbound exit ramp — and give a little nod.
For more forgotten grave sites in the Palmetto State, keep reading with this article about a forgotten slave cemetery, and with this article about a little girl buried all alone alongside her favorite path – which eventually became a very busy road.
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