"Legend Trip" to Stepp Cemetery

The story of Stepp Cemetery is one that I remember quite well from when I was a teenager in high school. The story, as I remember, was if you went to Stepp Cemetery late at night you would see a black ghost dog and a ghost of a woman in black sitting on a tree stump next to her baby’s grave. There was also a curse; something really horrible would happen to anyone who would stand on the stump that was next to baby Lester’s grave. When I was in high school, several car loads of my class mates and I decided to drive to Stepp Cemetery in Morgan Monroe State Forest to see if we could confirm or deny the story of seeing ghosts in the grave yard. Now it never dawned on me that this particular event would be defined as a type of ritual.

Reflecting on Chapter Four I have a better understanding of what a ritual can be. The type of ritual that I want to focus on as it relates to my trip to Stepp Cemetery is the age-related rite of passage of “Legend-Tripping” (Simms and Stephans 111). Several factors have to be met in order for this ritual to be a legend-trip. It must involve traveling with a group of friends to a particular location…with the common method of transportation the automobile (Simms and Stephans 111). In my situation there were numerous teenagers that arrived in several different vehicles late at night to the gates outside of Stepp Cemetery. Upon arrival we proceed to the cemetery in the cover of darkness. None of us really considered bringing flashlights, which made the trip to the cemetery even scarier. Risk and fear are important ingredients of legend-trips (Simms and Stephans 113). Unfortunately we did not see any ghosts, but several people got a good scare out of our adventure. However, one of the specific actions that we as legend-trippers were warned not to perform (Simms and Stephans 111) was to stand on the tree stump next to baby Lester’s grave. Almost everyone that was there that night heeded the warning regarding standing on the tree stump except one person.

I have not been back since that night. A year ago my sixteen year old daughter told me that her, and some of her friends were going to go to Stepp Cemetery. I said “good luck finding the place” and “under no circumstances are you to stand on that stump next to baby Lester’s grave”! I proceeded to tell her the story of the only boy who stood on that stump and a few weeks later he broke his leg in three places.


This Post is in response to Chapter 4 Reflection Question.

If you would like to read more about Stepp Cemetery follow these links.

http://members.aol.com/bfowler87/stepp.html

http://www.proofparanormal.com/steppcemeteryinvestigation.html

http://www.prairieghosts.com/stepp.html


Works Cited


Sims, Martha and Martine Stephens. Living Folklore an Introduction to the Study of People and Their Traditions. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2005.