Graveyards. They are the epicenter of every spooky-themed backdrop and are generally depicted something like this.

Crumbling headstones jutting out of uneven ground like jagged teeth. Fantoms float the grounds as fog snakes through the overgrown grass.

There are places of loud silence, broken only by an owl hooding, or a raven cawing from

within the leafless branches of gnarled trees. In short, they are eerie. Knowing the bodies of hundreds,

if not thousands of people, lay just underneath your feet, can be, well,

unsettling. They are physical reminders of our own mortality, and as I just described, often get

an unfair edit, portrayed as places of sadness, suffering, and scariness, places where ghosts dwell

and the living avoid.

But that representation is relatively new.

Not so long ago, cemeteries were not sequestered away and avoided.

They were integrated and embraced.

Not limited to a place purely for mourning,

cemeteries acted as the first form of free, open religious expression in this country,

and gave birth to landscape architecture that inspired the layout of suburbs and places like Disneyland.

They moved people creatively and inspired famous works of literature.

They were the catalyst for the country's first conservation project.

They served as America's first public art museums, and wouldn't you know it, cemeteries were among America's first parks.

Welcome to National Park After Dark.

Music Arc.

Fun fact, my first memories of learning how to ride a bike or in a cemetery.

That's your first ever memory?

Of writing, of learning to ride a bike.

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