A road trip attraction close to home – Magnolia Cemetery
Blue Highways by Tee Gentry
Sometime some of the most interesting road trips keep us close to home. Three miles can still be an adventure, and the most interesting places, such as Magnolia Cemetery, may be very close by, if you just take a moment to look.
Recently I travelled from my home in North Augusta all the way to Augusta. The destination – the very special Magnolia Cemetery. I have always found cemeteries to be, well, kind of spooky. So, I don’t necessarily notice them. But they are also places where history is truly tangible – and I do love history.
I arrived at my destination early one Saturday, sharing the morning with a few city workers cutting grass. I navigated my truck through the gate and down a very narrow road clearly laid long before the automobile was a concern. Rolling past row after row of memorials, markers, and stones, I couldn’t help but wonder about the lives these people lived, and how each, through inevitable circumstance, ended in this city of the dead, resting (hopefully) in peace. They loved, traveled, laughed – just as we all do – at one time. It certainly made me think about my own mortality.
According to augusta.gov, the first grave here dates to 1800, although it wasn’t officially designated a cemetery until 1818. That’s old. Very old. Magnolia is large, too. Spanning some 60 acres, it is the final resting place for an estimated 80 thousand people and includes a Greek cemetery and five Jewish cemeteries. It is also the final resting place for five Confederate generals.
In many ways, Magnolia is something of an exhibition dedicated to the way money, power, prevailing tastes, and our relationship with death. There’s real beauty to be found in the wrought iron fencing long out of fashion. There is power in the dichotomy and equality found in the simple stones placed next to elaborate memorials. One may be grander than the other, but each represents someone now equal in death.
Heading back home after this very short road trip was different than coming back from the beach or a mountain trip. It felt almost surreal. I remember thinking I left an area almost four times the population as nearby North Augusta. It was sobering.
Fun Fact:
There is a crepe myrtle in this graveyard that is the oldest living tree in Georgia and the magnolia trees that line the narrow roads are almost 190 years old.
If only we could live that long.
Memento mori.
