Basic Research of My Place: E.P “Tom” Sawyer Park

     For my first trip to introduce myself to E.P “Tom Sawyer Park, I went there because I wanted to explore the park that I chose as my place. Before this, in the past, I held a connection to Tom Sawyer Park due to the fact I spent a lot of thinking while I ran a multitude of draining miles for hard soccer conditioning and the fact I spent time with friends on the playground swinging through the air. From this, I formed a connection to the park initially, both positive and negative. Positive because I enjoy being outdoors and taking in the beautiful scene the park provides, and negative just because I have ill feelings towards being forced to run. 
     As I have discovered with more attention being paid to it, this park is a peaceful place; the bright sun, green grass, birds chirping, shady trees, entertaining playground, and people exercising give off that vibe. The feeling is simply uncontrollable. That is why I was so shocked to find a cemetery in the middle of an open field where there was no care shown whatsoever to the headstones or remains. 

     I discovered the forgotten cemetery as I took the Goose Creek Trail through the park. For the whole time, I just wandered on the trail, taking pictures of anything that caught my eye such as weirdly spiraled roots coming through the earth, as well as going a bit off of it as well. I enjoyed holding my hands out and grasping onto the leaves pouring off the trees next to me just to feel. The trail then opened up to reveal wild fields filled with all kinds of plant life. When the trail opened up, a fence showed itself lining the path. It is old, rundown, and in several spots, the fence is fallen down completely baring the field to outsiders it may be protecting the area from. I became one of those outsiders as I decided to venture across the field. That is when I came across headstones beneath the tremendous sized tree casting a protective shadow.

Meshew, Joanne. Map of  the Area. 1997.  The Courier Journal.

     From revealing themselves, I yearned to learn more about the headstones and the cemetery. The land that Tom Sawyer Park sits on has not always been a park for people to come and participate in outdoor activities. It was land for the Kentucky Lunatic Asylum or better known now as the Central State Hospital. Here, patients were helped with treatment of mental illnesses. The hospital began its operations in 1869 including the part of land that Tom Sawyer Park sits on. In the 1950’s, the buildings and grounds were in disrepair and in the 1980’s the buildings were razed and relocated. There are still some remaining farm houses and buildings on Tom Sawyer Park that belong to the Central Sate Hospital. When the park opened in 1971, it inherited all the buildings and now known cemeteries that were on the land boundaries. Visiting the park now and curiously walking around, you can investigate the buildings as they are not looked after. 
     I found it odd that the cemetery had not been taken care of when I walked upon it. I wondered about the family members of those who had died and why nothing was done to upkeep the grounds. It is like no one cares about them which gives off a haunting effect when pondering the displaced headstones. In The Courier Journal article written in June 1997 “Walk in park leads to discovery of forgotten cemetery” by Scott Wade, apparently at one time the headstones were even more misplaced than they are know when I came across them. A man and his 2 grand kids found a few headstones in the creek bed of Goose Creek face down. They brought the site to the attention of the Courier Journal where more action was taken at the state level. Before this, Gene Goodbub who was an engineer for the state hospital until 1984, “recalls finding a pile of 20 to 30 headstones near the field and the creek shortly after he began working there.” The fact that only a few headstones were found in 1997 from the 20 to 30 that were found by Mr. Goodbub begs the question what happened to the headstones? Who would take a person’s headstone from a cemetery? I find it simply disrespectful. 
    One of the headstones found in the creek bed was from Aunt Florence Annette Markwell. According to Clarence Barton in the article, the chaplain of the Central State Hospital, Ms. Markwell lived her last six years of her life at the hospital. Around 1970, her family members wanted to pay their respects to her by marking her with her own headstone. At this time the cemetery was already in disarray so they put the new headstone on the edge of the cemetery. It is curious how the headstone came to be moved 100 feet away from where it was placed.

Wade, Scott. Headstone of Florence Annette Markwell. 1997. The Courier Journal.

     In a follow up article “Rediscovered cemetery to be identified, official says” by Wade, Donna Neary, the administrator of historic preservation and archives states, “it hasn’t been unusual for old headstones to be taken and used as coffee tables,” to which I find even more atrocious and disturbing. Would you really want your coffee table in your house to be a stolen dead person’s headstone and more so someone who was in a mental institution? Any takers? No thank you. 

This is the same headstone from 1997, that
I found beneath the tree in the field of Florence
Annette Markwell.

    Why the headstones from the cemetery have gone astray in the first place can be answered by Rev. Clarence Barton, the Central State Chaplain from 1952 to 1988. When he arrive at the hospital, Barton said, “the cemetery was overgrown and no longer being used in the 1950’s when he and others decided to clean up the field. Because workers couldn’t tell which headstone belonged to which grave, the stones were placed along the side of the field, perhaps 100 feet of more from the ravine and creek.” If the cemetery was so overgrown in the 1950’s, I can only imagine the difference that the area must have seeing as it is 60 years later.
     What I was even more put off by was the statement by Phil DiBlasi, a University of Louisville archaeologist when he was quoted in the article saying, “It sounds like a comedy of errors. Everything that could have gone wrong did in this case.” For a cemetery becoming forgotten to be defined as a “comedy of errors”, I am upset. The whole situation of the Central State Hospital, its cemetery, the forgotten people, and misplaced headstones is a tragedy from a historical perspective. 

     From researching and experiencing the remains of the cemetery as misplaced headstones under a large tree in a dilapidated fenced field, I have discovered a part of Tom Sawyer Park that not many are aware of exists. I have shared what I have found to my family, and they were as shocked as I was when I first discovered the headstones. I take a sense of accomplishment of myself to have educated myself and others of this odd discovery. I, however, have feelings of concern for the cemetery because I think more can be done to educate the visitors of Tom Sawyer Park of the rundown area. I fear that they could become forgotten even more than they are now.