(Source of image: Photo snapped by & copyright by Website Manager, JacksonvilleStory.com)

History buffs haunted the River City's largest graveyard during October 2003.  For three warm, busy days, the Port of Jacksonville Pilot Club conducted tours of Evergreen Cemetery.  This memorial park is located on Main Street just north of Springfield.  Raising money for worthy causes, the tours have proven a very popular annual event.  Keep an eye out for them in 2004. 

There are so many interesting stories behind the tombstones.  Talented re-enactors portray some of the individuals interned at Evergreen, and visitors meet a variety of characters.  In 2003, these included a heavenly angel, a local soldier from the Spanish American War, a former Duval County sheriff lolling in a jail cell, and two ill-fated Baker County Mormons driving a buckboard wagon.

In the picture above, a tour group peeks into a picturesque old vault near the cemetery's south edge.  The structure once held caskets -- with their occupants -- prior to their permanent internment at Evergreen.  One occupied coffin waited in it for eight years!  It sat in storage from 1935 to 1943, when a mausoleum was completed. 

Did you know that Evergreen serves as the final resting place for over 70,000 people?  By way of comparison, Alltel Stadium contains 73,000 seats!  Evergreen's first burial took place in 1881.  Remains were also transferred to it from a downtown spot near State Street, as well as from the Old City Cemetery.  At one time, Evergreen Cemetery offered a train depot for its visitors from the local area.

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