Ozarks . . . Marks on gravestones

[curious_newbie]

Greetings, everyone! I am very new to the forum and the topic, so please forgive my ignorance and/or breaches of etiquette. No disrespect is intended!

Anyway. My husband’s family has some property in the Ozarks, very close to the MO/AR border. When clearing brush about 50 years back they uncovered a small cemetery. Many graves had no markers, or only unmarked stone cairns. Several of the actual shaped-and-carved headstones have symbols carved into their backs.

(I’m a lifelong cemetery nerd so I can say that they are not markings or symbols associated with any European burial traditions or superstitions.)

The old-timers told the family at the time that they were “outlaw code” and led to hidden loot. That area is steeped in stories of outlaws and bandits, there’s a cave tour a couple miles up the road that claims it was the hideout for Jesse James and his gang, but I’ve seen tourist traps claiming to be lots of things, so I take that with a grain of salt.

We’ll be spending some time down there this fall, and I was hoping to do some research beforehand. (And yes, I promise photos.)

Could anyone point me in the right direction to begin learning about these sorts of coded markings in that region?

I have little hope of finding treasure, but I have a bet with an in-law: he says it’s pointing to lost bandit gold; I say it’s pointing to the now-collapsed still a ways up the holler.

 

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[DizzyDigger]

Welcome to the site from the Pacific Northwest CN..

It sounds like you've got yourself an intriguing treasure hunt ahead. I know little of signs and symbols, but there are many here with vast experience in that arena. I'm sure they'll be along to share anything that might be of help.

 

[sdcfia]

Cemeteries, small and large, have be known to be repositories of disguised information - fake grave locations and/or bogus headstones, providing carved info, directional alignments, etc. They can be useful because most observers - even uneducated treasure searchers - tend to assume and respect them for what they seem to be.

Even unmarked graves can be lucrative, as Tuco found out the hard way ...

 

[curious_newbie]

Cemeteries, small and large, have be known to be repositories of disguised information - fake grave locations and/or bogus headstones, providing carved info, directional alignments, etc. They can be useful because most observers - even uneducated treasure searchers - tend to assume and respect them for what they seem to be.

Even unmarked graves can be lucrative, as Tuco found out the hard way ...

Back when I was a mortician/funeral director I worked at a cemetery dating back to 1909, and originally it was highly segregated, with sections specifically for Black folks and “Gypsies”.

The latter fascinated me, because this was the Midwest. Like, Gypsies, for real?

Luckily the sexton had been there since the 60’s, so he took me on a few tours, and told me about the time in the mid-70’s when they buried “royalty.”

I’ll leave aside the tale of the three-day revel, and skip to the part where he’s explaining why the “King’s” grave has an enormous, thick granite slab on top, three times larger than the grave itself.

Apparently as part of their burial tradition, everyone in the subordinate clans filed by the casket, and by the time the funeral director went to close it only the face was still visible among the cash money and gold and silver coins.

The next-of-kin had given instructions that the casket was not to be lowered into the grave until after everyone but the NOK had left the cemetery entirely.

After they’re all gone he asks for the casket to be re-opened, had his son drive his car up next to the grave, brought out some sacks, and filled them up with all the money.

Then he took out his checkbook, wrote a check for the approximate amount that had been in the casket, slips it under the deceased’s hand, and drives off.

Sexton said that for the next twenty years every now and then they’d catch someone trying to dig up that slab. He said, “You know, I half want one of ‘em to make it down there, just to see the look on his d**n fool face.”

 

[curious_newbie]

Welcome to the site from the Pacific Northwest CN..

It sounds like you've got yourself an intriguing treasure hunt ahead. I know little of signs and symbols, but there are many here with vast experience in that arena. I'm sure they'll be along to share anything that might be of help.

Thanks for the warm welcome! I am really enjoying this site — it’s rare to find a place on the internet where so many people disagree with one another so respectfully, for one thing 😂

There are more fascinating stories on this site than a person could record in a lifetime, but dang I wish someone would try. Y’all have me half convinced to re-establish contact with my dad’s sister, on the off-chance she still has some of the maps their dad made back when he was hired to record Native burial sites as part of a WPA program (now there’s an initiative I’d like to see revived, but that’s a different rant). This was in SE Kansas, so not much chance of gold or silver, but as far as I’m concerned, sometimes the map *is* the treasure.

 

[PartisanRanger]

Hello. there was a page on rootsweb.com under "symbols" that give a good description of markings on tombstones. you can also google "cemetery acronym secret societies" and another one to google is "Military Coding and Abbreviations" hope this little bit of info helps.

 

[ArfieBoy]

Welcome to this great forum from Oregon! Sounds like you have a great research area. Look forward to hearing more and seeing the photos. Good Luck!