The cemetery at Westville

Oklahoma · United States · Cemetery

The track in is two miles long and barely wide enough to drive. At the end of it there is a small building, and a porch you can stand on.

The road to this burial ground near Westville, Oklahoma runs about two miles and is narrow enough that you have to take it slowly.

Visitors describe the feeling starting on the drive in.

At the end there is a small building, a house or a schoolhouse. Stand on the porch and the accounts continue from there.

What this ground is matters more than what is reported on it. Westville is in the Cherokee Nation, at the end of the route the Cherokee were forced to walk in 1838 and 1839 after being driven from their homes in Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Alabama. Around four thousand people died on that march, of exposure, hunger and disease, and the ones who arrived buried their dead here in a country none of them had chosen.

This is a cemetery belonging to a living nation.

Visit it, if at all, as you would visit any grave.

FAQ

Where is The cemetery at Westville located?

The cemetery at Westville is in Oklahoma, United States.