Tag: america

Hart Island, also known as the
Island of the Dead, is a massive burial ground for people too poor to
afford a proper funeral or bodies who were never claimed by family
members.

Located in New York, it has worked as a cemetery since 1869, after
being a Civil War prison camp, a tuberculosis hospital and an asylum for
the insane. It holds the remains of at least 1 million people. Inmates
work as gravediggers and groundkeepers in the otherwise abandoned
island.

Until last weekend, families weren’t allowed to visit the actual spot
where their loved ones were buried, they could only look at the scenery
from a gazebo. The DOC fortunately changed that, offering closure to
many.

The Wonder Spot was a popular Wisconsin tourist attraction that was open from 1949 until 2006 before being demolished. It featured a small cabin at the edge of a ravine and was advertised as “a place where the normal rules of gravity do not apply”. Sure enough, if you were to travel to The Wonder Spot, you’d find it impossible to stand up straight. Water ran backwards and in strange, swirling motions and it was possible to balance chairs and tables on two legs. It was very difficult to walk properly, as you would be met with a strange weightless feeling, as if you were walking on the moon. This story is certainly freaky and there aren’t many definite explanations for this strange phenomena. Tour guides merely attributed the lack of gravity to igneous rock formations, which makes it even more fascinating.

“The woods gal, that’s what they called me.” Emma Dupree, 1898-1996.
Photos by Mary Anne McDonald.

Emma Dupree was a respected herbal healer in Pitt County, North Carolina: “From
the time she could walk, Emma felt drawn to the land. She would roam
the woods, plucking, sniffing, tasting weeds. She grew up that way,
collecting the leaves, stems, roots, and bark of sweet gum, white mint,
mullein, sassafras in her coattail or a tin bucket. She’d tote them back
to the farm, rinse them in well water and tie them in bunches to dry.
In the backyard, she’d raise a fire under a kettle and boil her herbs to
a bubbly froth, then pour it up in brown-necked stone jugs: a
white-mint potion for poor circulation; catnip tea for babies with
colic; tansy tea – hot or cold – for low blood sugar; mullein tea for a
stomach ache …”
— Paige Williams