By now, many know of my interests in old, forgotten cemeteries. This one is another one.
It's listed on area maps as St. John's Cemetery. But, like the Butler, Myrtle Grove, and Magnolia Cemeteries, it's a landmark of long ago that few people know ever knew existed. Unlike many of the others, some headstones can still be found in the undergrowth.
St. John's Cemetery was probably a very pretty place of rest at the turn of the 20th cemetery. The plot was likely set aside by the sugarcane plantation, actually out in the cane fields the people had worked all their lives.
I first ran across it for the first time while I was rabbit hunting one very cold winter morning about 1975. Walking along the tractor road between fields, I followed the dogs into a wooded area, and found myself surrounded by several graves. Nearly all are concrete. Today, that area and the grave markers are much the same as they were back then. Scattered, many fallen and broken, most unreadable. Probably about 10 distinct grave locations. One very old homemade brick crypt that is all but collapsed...still sort of boxey shaped...mostly.
Knowing the rule about cemeteries, I put the cache just a few feet into the wooded area, near the existing stones, but out of the probable cemetery limits. Some of the stones can be seen from the cache. There are several others if you walk around.
The entire cemetery is under heavy shaded tree cover, so the undergrowth is not too heavy. But the heavy overhead canopy made for getting good coordinates almost impossible, even in the winter, when the cache was originally set.
The cache was placed in the dead of winter, so be wary of summery critters..snakes, etc in the area.
Park at 29.32.827N, 090 37.935W and walk in along the fenceline of the nearby pipeline company. Don't need to trespass by crossing the ditch to the left . About a quarter of a mile in, you will come across a field tractor road. Follow it to the cache cite, then walk into the foliage.
Property not posted against trespassing, hunting, etc.