MONUMENTAL HISTORY: TOMBSTONE TOUR INCLUDES AREA CEMETERIES

A walk through the maze of sandstone and granite monuments in an old cemetery is enough to cause the flesh to crawl or chills to run up the spine of even the most stalwart individuals. But for Tom Tucker, the idea of a "tombstone tour" was a natural.

Tucker, executive director of the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission, conceived the tour over a decade ago after attending a national conference in North Carolina as a way of not only assisting families in their genealogical research, but also as a way to increase tourism in the area.

"We have to recognize that this area has a lot of history," said Tucker.

"The first settlements in the state were in Southeast Missouri, and with them the first cemeteries. There are a lot of old graveyards around."

Many of the cemeteries contain graves of soldiers killed in the Civil War. Others show evidence of widespread deaths due to cholera outbreaks. A few date back to the 1700s and the early years of settlement.

The tour itself is actually a self-guided tour where individuals, armed only with a book of maps produced by the commission, may find and visit cemeteries throughout the seven counties served by the commission.

When Tucker first proposed the idea of producing a book of maps for a tombstone tour, people laughed, but Tucker persisted, finally convincing those on the commission board that the tombstone tour would spur interest in the area.

Board members applied for and received project funding through the Division of Tourism's Wake Up To Missouri campaign. Then came the task of cataloging the cemeteries and creating the document.

Ron Steele, also of the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission, began by contacting the historical societies of member counties and soliciting their help. As word of the project began to circulate, people would call Steele to let him know of the existence and sites of small, obscure cemeteries.

Extremely helpful, according to Steele, was the work of LaDonna and John James of Bollinger County. They had spent 13 years mapping the county's cemeteries. The result was the 1995 publication of the county's first copyrighted cemetery directory. Their detailed study allowed Steele to include 191 entries for Bollinger County alone in the Tombstone Tour.

In addition to Bollinger County, the counties represented in the tour are Cape Girardeau, Iron, Madison, Perry, St. Francois and Ste. Genevieve. Some 772 cemeteries are listed in the tour book.

"The book is a multipurpose document," said Tucker. It helps people find their ancestors and trace their family trees. And it increases tourism in the area."

He has had requests for the book from as far away as Alaska, and visitors from Florida and California have stopped at his office for a copy.

Public libraries in the region have been supplied copies to assist those doing genealogical research, as has the Mormon Center in Salt Lake City. Many funeral homes in the area also have copies to assist funeral directors in the location of some of the more obscure cemeteries. And requests for the book continue to come in from all over the country.

Unfortunately, according to Tucker, the book, first published in 1995, is out of print, with all copies having been given away. The commission is looking for ways to raise additional funding for the project so that it might update and reprint the book. Already, added Steele, he has an inch-thick file of additions and corrections.

The popularity of the tombstone tour has shown that cemeteries are more than eerie places where things go bump in the night. They are places where people may find their heritage and history etched in stone.