Day 4

Richmond, Virginia - Hollywood Cemetery

This was the least credible place we had for haunted activity. So I really wasn’t expecting much. Such in consideration I thought it would be fun to take a trip to Colonial Williamsburg, so off we went! Of course the place ain’t exactly jumpin’n the winter, no staged battles, not even many colonial people bustling around. It was still kinda cool. We pretty much just walked about and tricked a less than happy couple into taking our picture at the stockades.

Next we went to Jamestown, the first English colony in America. The Archeological dig museum was REALLY fascinating. In a place like that you can either look at the artifacts and say, "neat." Or you can use them to piece together an idea of how their lives were back then. I’d like to think I do that latter. Although I did pretend to have a thing for the Pocahantis statue...

After that we moved on to Richmond. It’s really amazing how segregated much of the south is. Richmond is quite an example of this. We found the cemetery in a run-down neighborhood and we were just about to enter and do some daylight scouting for the Death Pyramid, when the grounds keeper shut the gates on us and grumbled that the cemetery was closed for the day. We went to a local dive to kill some time with grilled cheese, soup, beers, and a couple of games of pool. I played amazingly I must say! When night fell, we went back to Hollywood Cemetery. The easier access to the graveyard was also the most visible (on the side of a street). So we acted real casual until climbing the fence in. We had to sneak around in the shadows until clear from an occupied building inside the cemetery’s gates. Once we made it down the trail, I must say I was quite impressed by the landscape. Aged magnificent tombs cluttering large steep hills, monuments of the dead everywhere. We continued searching for the Death Pyramid (a very large pyramid set somewhere in the cemetery where thousands of nameless Confederate soldiers are buried. It is said you can sometimes hear moans from the monument. There is also the story of a little girl who walked past the cemetery every day and petted a little dog statue every time, treating the stone figure like it was real. She was later struck by a vehicle and buried in the cemetery; the groundskeeper placed the dog statue next to her, knowing her fondness of it. It is said you can hear her and the dog playing at night.)

This cemetery was unbelievably vast, and once we reached the rear of it, there was an amazing view of the city of Richmond and a large river that glistened under a near full moon. Though we came across a creepy looking bird-cage that housed a vault, which turned out to by James Monroe, there was still no Death Pyramid. So we continued the perimeter of the cemetery, eyes peeled open. This is where imagination gets the best of you. As I walked past headstone after headstone, I would imagine shadows cross between them. And this was a little freaky. What the mind can create!! It’s truly perplexing when you think of the psychology of it. Anyway, we eventually found the Death Pyramid and we were not disappointed. It stands about 30-40 feet tall I’d have to guess. We considered climbing it was a moment but instead walked away with a piece (stone) of the pyramid. We heard no voices. We also found the dog statue/little girl’s grave and encountered nothing strange. THOUGH!!! As we approached the front of the cemetery once again, suddenly the air became cold. Dave and I looked at each other, then down to the Death Pyramid stone he was still holding. Fuck’em, we were leaving with a keepsake!
This is the first haunted stop I can actually show you. There’s even a virtual tour!!

http://www.hollywoodcemetery.org/