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This cache is dedicated to Santos Rodriguez, the 12-year-old shot and killed by a rogue Dallas police officer in the backseat of a patrol car on a dark and infamous summer night in 1974 This is another cache in a very unusual and unique cemetery. After visiting this place you will not be the same. You will feel some unusual spirit in this cemetery I promise.
And if it's scary cemetery story you prefer, there is the grave site of Dallas' Annie Lawther. She, according to long-standing local legend, is the white-gown-clad ghost that has "haunted" the shores of White Rock Lake for decades. The "Lady Of The Lake."
Personal Cache Note
There are only three caches in this cemetery. This will be the fourth of many. This is an unusual neighborhood. Do not go after this cache after dark/sunset. Do not enter this cemetery after sunset. Their is a man who lives in the house at the entrance of this cemetery, he will monitor you when you enter the grounds. Look around the grounds, many old famous Dallas citizens are buried on these grounds.
I bet you have never driven by are walked on these cemetery grounds. Every cemetery needs a geocache. Their is a lot of history buried here. Only if these graves could talk. Many of these people, laid the ground work for, our future and the future of Dallas. There is a Woodsman of The World section. You will be fascinated about this cemetery.
OAKLAND CEMETERY, 1892, 3900 Oakland Circle. Dallas 75215. 60 acres.
From IH 45, go 0.5 mile NE on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Turn right @ Malcolm X Blvd. & go 0.7 mile South. The cemetery entrance is @ Oakland Circle on the East side of the road.
The cemetery was called People's Cemetery originally and was changed to Oakland Cemetery about 1900.
Many prominent Dallas names are buried here: DEALEY, FIELD, ZANGS, BELO, CARUTH, ARMSTRONG, EXALL, Noah ROARK, Wm. Francis MILLER, GIBB, HOLLAND, KIEST, TENNISON, EXLINE, Mayor Frank P. HOLLAND, Charles O'CONNER, Henry ERVAY, SULLIVAN, Confederate Gen. GANO, etc.
Harold Williams climbs into an old pickup with a cranky transmission and visits the ghosts of the city's past. Caretaker of the 60-acre Oakland Cemetery, one of the oldest and most historic graveyards in Dallas, Williams takes with him the tools of his trade--a lawn mower, a gas-powered weed eater.
Sallie Martin's headstone, top, is indicative of the fine sculptures found at Oakland Cemetery, while the grave markers with names such as Dealey and Belo speak to the cemetery's connection with Dallas' powerbroker families.
As the 46-year-old Williams, the caretaker, slowly winds his way through the familiar labyrinth of 30,000 headstones, many bearing the names of those who forged Dallas into a vibrant and progressive metropolis, he rarely fails to wonder at the rich history over which he is assigned to watch. Yet visitors to the all-but-forgotten resting place of bygone generations, he admits, are rare. "Some days," he says, "there might be two, maybe three. A lot of days there are none." In a silent nod to the political correctness of the day, he will offer no reason. But it is obvious.
Once proud and well-kept, located just a few blocks from the intersection of Oakland and Forest avenues when the area was populated by high-profile families like the Sangers and the Harrises, the cemetery is now guarded by a dilapidated fence and an entranceway gate that is routinely locked at sundown.
But hidden inside the cemetery boundaries are reminders both wistful and upsetting, vestiges of a time when the area danced to high society's tune. Confederate soldiers of high rank and deeds once viewed as patriotic, even heroic, lie beneath aging, breathtaking monuments sculpted by craftsmen from as far away as Florence and Venice.
It is a landmark that mirrors the beauty and ugliness of the city's history. Although there is hope that Oakland Cemetery will soon receive monies to provide much-needed repair and updating, there are no guarantees. Even so, given its location and low profile, the cemetery most likely will continue to be at best ignored, at worst neglected.
Which is inexcusable. The stories buried there form the roots of Dallas, fast-decaying signboards that point to its successes and its failings, its moments of glory and shame. It is the final resting place of many whose money, clout and foresight helped build the city. For those reasons alone, Oakland Cemetery deserves more attention than it receives.
Wandering into its overgrown grounds, one finds many of the same honored names city fathers have assigned to the streets and byways of Dallas. There is Edwin Kiest, publisher of the Dallas Times Herald before the turn of the century; A.H. Belo, son of the founder of the media conglomerate that today includes The Dallas Morning News and WFAA-TV; members of the Caruth family who once owned much of the land that would become the Southern Methodist University campus, North Dallas shopping centers and residential showplaces; Adam Janelli, founder of the city's Salvation Army; John Armstrong, developer of Highland Park; J.F. Strickland, who started the company that is today TU Electric; engineer John O'Connor, who oversaw the building of the seawall in Galveston after the infamous hurricane that devastated it in 1915; Portugal-born insurance company owner Louis Antonio Pires, who donated almost $1 million to establish the Buckner Orphans Home.
In fact, the roll call of names familiar to Dallas historians are many: Ervay, Thornton, Akard, Miller, Record, Minyard, Grauwyler, Cabell, Armstrong, Zang and Bartos. They include ex-mayors (Winship Conner, Williams Holland, Louis Blalock), a lieutenant governor (Bennett Gibbs), wife of a former New York City mayor and an ambassador to Mexico (Sloan Simpson O'Dwyer), religious leaders (Episcopal Bishop Alexander Garrett), entertainment luminaries (B-movie actress Dorothy Brannen Exall) and patrons of the arts (Mrs. J.T. Trezevant, founder of the Dallas Shakespeare Club). Individually and collectively, they signal the prosperity and progressiveness of generations past.
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