Final Destinations: A Travel Guide for Remarkable Cemeteries in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana

The compilation reaffirms our fascination with cemeteries and their status as tourist attractions. People visit cemeteries in large numbers. Evidence of crowd control abounds from signs directing traffic to the grave marker of President Clinton’s mother in Hope, Arkansas, and the large steel cage protecting the tombstone of Billy the Kid at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, to the monument in New Orleans made famous by the movie Easy Rider and Bonnie Parker’s coveted headstone in Dallas, relocated to prevent theft.

The stories also demonstrate that the reasons people flock to cemeteries are as varied as the people interred there. Cemeteries hold some of the most interesting sculpture and folk art in our region. Unusual graves include the Sturrock Cemetery in Tyler County, Texas, started when the family arrived from Scotland in the 1830s. The dozen sandstone crypts are said to resemble the style of the family’s houses in Scotland. The graves at the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation in Polk County, Texas, are adorned with decorations such as sea shells, stones, skillets, and teddy bears.

New Orleans cemeteries are a tourist industry by themselves, featured in movies and Anne Rice novels. The oldest standing cemetery is St. Louis No. 1, on the edge of the French Quarter. The most famous grave here belongs to Marie Laveau, the voodoo queen. Louisiana’s French and Cajun cultures come alive in its cemeteries and many plantations, such as Afton Villa and Rosedown, contain cemeteries.

Cemeteries hold fascination for history buffs and family genealogists, and this book is a valuable guide for both. It provides information about the more well-known gravesites, such as Sam Houston’s at Huntsville’s Oakwood Cemetery, but also the less well-known locations. Two graves in unassuming cemeteries are the final resting places of two of the greatest blues artists of all time: “Blind” Lemon Jefferson in Wortham, Texas, and Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter in Mooringsport, Louisiana. Do you know where Hoss Cartwright is buried? The authors of this handy guidebook do.

This book will also illuminate the history behind the sites and the people who lie buried there, as well as provide information on nearby places to stay. It’s the ideal book for the amateur genealogist and weekend historian.

The Dallas Morning News writers are Larry Bleiberg, Travel Editor, Bob Bersano, Personal Technology Editor, Tom Simmons, retired Executive Editor, Jean Simmons, Travel columnist, Kathryn Straach, Travel writer, and Bryan Woolley, Feature writer. Leon Unruh is News Editor of the Anchorage Daily News.