Did you know that this was my first ever visit to Columbus? I’ve been alllll around it but never in it. It’s wild that you can live somewhere (Georgia) over half your life and still have so many places to see and visit. I rather like it. It means I never have an excuse to not get in the car and go explore.

My Mom joined me on my adventures and we tootled around to Pasaquan, the Drive-Thru Museum of Wonder, about a dozen thrift stores, the river walk and some cemeteries. I love that Mom is embracing all of this and she was a great co-traveler even if she was like, what the fuck is this? to several spots. Yay Mom! Sorry I made you look at so many taxidermied animals.

The two main cemeteries I visited were Linwood and Riverdale. Here’s what I found:

Linwood Cemetery

At the top of a hill, with a lovely view of the city skyline and a direct echo of the strident whistle of passing trains, sits the historic Linwood Cemetery. Lots of wildflowers and cats at this one so I obviously went back more than once even though it was raining the second day…

Dr John Pemberton created “Pemberton’s French Wine Coca” in the mid-1880s. It had lots of things including wine and cocaine. For reals! Pemberton had injuries from his stint in the Civil War which plagued him all his life and he created the drink as a way to cope. Later, he changed the recipe by removing the wine and cocaine, brought on business partners and the product eventually became a household name. I’m talking about Coca-Cola of course!

Pemberton didn’t reap the rewards of his venture though because sold all of his shares to pay off his debts (he had a heavy morphine addiction) and then died young due to stomach cancer.

At Pemberton’s grave there’s quite the collection of bottles and cans left by visitors.

Some of my favorite graves in the cemetery. Love these figures…

So. Many. Symbols.

Riverdale Cemetery

I visited here for one particular monument: The Circus Tent Grave. Heartbreaking.

One of our community’s most noted train wrecks occurred on November 22, 1915. Four days before Thanksgiving, the 1915 season for the Con. T. Kennedy Circus was coming to an end. They were on their way from a stint downtown at the Atlanta Exposition, where it set records for money and attendance, and their next stop was Girard, Alabama, across a newly opened bridge from Columbus. The train and its array of performers were six miles out of town, and the tracks ahead were believed to be clear. A Central of Georgia passenger train headed to Macon had left Columbus and was supposed to wait at Muscogee Junction. Only orders were ignored. The Central of Georgia train barreled onto the main tracks and, near a bend at Bull Creek, it collided head-on with the unsuspecting circus train. They were going 30 to 35 mph when they plowed into one another at 1:26 PM — 9 minutes before the regular train was supposed to pull out.

Flames as hot as a furnace moved through the circus train, which was made of metal and wood and loaded with oily tents that fanned the flames. Twenty-four members of the circus died. More than 50 survivors ended up in an overrun City Hospital.

When the engines telescoped into one another, they never left the track. Cars on the Central of Georgia train were much sturdier, and there were no fatalities among the passengers. That was not the case on the circus train. Cars at the rear carrying an assortment of wild animals were untouched and free from the flames. In between, nine cars were consumed in less than two hours. Word that an angry circus bear was on the loose lured young hunters from town, but the fate of the animal was never reported. Colorful parrots flew away, but a gaggle of monkeys did not escape. Frightened and frantic, they jumped into trees next to the rail bed. Circus people, knowing they would hamper rescue efforts shot the monkeys out of the trees.

The show in Girard did not go on, and circus people were left without places to stay or money for food. Columbus people rallied around them, and a group of Women’s Club ladies fed them a Thanksgiving meal on the first floor of the Murrah Building on First Avenue. Thanksgiving morning, Dr. Luther R. Christie, pastor at First Baptist Church from 1909 to 1917, led a funeral cortege down 12th Street before presiding at a service unlike the city had ever seen. Behind him were musicians from Prof. Eslick’s band, some playing borrowed instruments. They played a somber version of “Rock of Ages” as they crept down the street to the church. Every pew was filled as Christie preached about God’s omnipotence and about the haven He offers in the darkest of hours.

The day after the services, what was left of the Con T. Kennedy Show went to Albany, Ga., then to Jacksonville, Fla., where their season officially closed. The close-knit circus community rallied around them and provided equipment and acts for the remaining dates.

A circus tent memorial headstone was later erected Riverdale Cemetery commemorating the tragedy.

As you can imagine, there are lots of ghost stories swirling about involving calliope music, brightly colored orbs and cries for help in the darkness. The rainy day we went there were only a pair of shiny beads and a faded kazoo to be seen. But if you listen long enough you can hear the trains off in the distance and it’s a bit of an eerie reminder…