Adventuring along the Tennessee River

My daughter (Robin the Explorer) cam by yesterday, and brought us her latest driftwood stump. (She and my husband have a plan to make driftwood lamps and furniture, but that is a different story) She asked us if we would like to go along adventuring with her down by the river.
We all loaded up in the old station wagon, Chipper and Tootsie all excited about their excursion, too, and off we went to the river.
Way back in the woods, totally overgrown and hidden until youwalked right up to it, was an old, old cemetery. There were some graves with old hanf-carved headstones, some with small markers, and a lot of other places where the ground was sunken in, but with no markers at all.
When we came home, I started searching to see what I could find out about the graveyard, and was able to locate it on a website that showed all of the old cemetaries in the area. Apparently, this was a "Black graveyard", and probably dtes back to before the Civil War, but there were graves added there up until around 2002.
Just down about a mile was a lost town called Cottonport, which disappeared shortly after the Civil War, leaving no traces. Around 1960, the new interstate was put in that went through Huntsville, and it right through the Cottonport cemetery; so the remains found there were transported to another cemetery.

It was an interesting afternoon, tromping through the woods, and then down along the edge of the water; and an equally interesting time coming home and researching about the area where we were, and the history of the cemetery.

 

Here is a link to the webpage that has all kinds of pictures of the old cemetery. If I can get it to upload, I will also post another picture of the trip.
http://aigcemeteriesii.weebly.com/centerstar-cemetery-limestone-co-al.html

I can't get the other picture to upload, but here is a link to it that should work, I think.

 

We also roam and visit old graveyards. We have a lot of Underground Railroad era ones here on both sides of the Ohio River. Heartbreaking to see how many could only make it this far in their escape.