
Saint Ann’s Cemetery on Mackinac Island in behind the fort near Skull Cave. It was not always at this location. I was originally next to Ste Anne’s Catholic Church near downtown. One of the oldest headstones in the cemetery is for Mary Biddle, She was eight years old when she fell through the ice and died in 1833. In the 1850s the cemetery could no longer accept new burials because it could not expand into the city. The bodies were exhumed and moved to the current cemetery further into the island.
Years later after the cemetery was moved, headstones were found among the weeds at the old location. Workers found them before the construction of the buildings that now stand near the church. It makes you wonder how thorough they were at moving the bodies of those laid to rest. One thing that is odd about the cemetery is the name. On the gate, it reads St Ann’s Cemetery but the church is Ste. Anne’s. Legend also has it the gate was build to accommodate a horse-drawn hearse but they forgot about the driver. That fueled the legend of the headless horseman or in this case hearseman.
It is a beautiful old cemetery and the carriage tours travel along the road next to it. And if you are wondering, to be laid to rest in the cemetery, you either need to have been born on the island or been a resident or owned a business on the island for more than 15 years
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