Get Your History On @ the Lexington Cemetery

Today's Adventure Time took place in the wilds of the Lexington Cemetery and Arboretum in Lexington, Kentucky. Dating back to 1849 (allegedly to deal with high mortality from a cholera epidemic going on at the time), Lex Cem is on the National Register of Historic Places and worth a visit from anyone passing through the Bluegrass.

My visits to the cemetery are mostly for birding purposes; it's also a 170-acre arboretum and a local birding hotspot, especially during migration when it provides a safe haven from urban sprawl for migrants passing through. According to eBird, around 150 different species have been seen at the park. With the weather at sauna-like levels of heat and humidity the birds were pretty quiet today; the most exciting find was my first-of-year Scarlet Tanager.

Even though the birding was slow, there's plenty of other stuff to see--Lex Cem has enough to hold the interest of any history buff or connoisseur of the grotesque and Gothic. It's the final resting place of, most famously, statesman and orator Henry Clay, and includes a massive monument where he and his wife are buried (it's literally so tall you can't really get a good look at it).  Directly next to the Clays' tomb is a huge American basswood, which nearby signage claims is the largest basswood in the United States.

Sharing the cemetery with Union soldiers as well as fellow Confederates is General John Hunt Morgan of Morgan's Raid fame. Morgan and his "Calico Raiders" went farther north into Yankee territory than any other Confederate force during the Civil War. I spent a lot of years in southern Ohio counties scattered with historical markers indicating Morgan had passed that way, so after moving to Lexington I felt obligated to go visit the burial place of the general who had (way back in 1863) sacked my former stompin grounds.

Evidently other people like to visit as well. On previous visits I've found flowers, little rock stacks, keychains and a passive-aggressive Union flag. 

And of course there's enough statuary to satisfy the morbid Victorian in all of us:

 For those with paranormal interests, the mausoleum has the obligatory dark shadows, screams, and cold spots. And if none of that stuff interests you and you just like fuzzy adorable things, I'm pretty sure Lex Cem has the highest chipmunk-per-acre concentration in all of Lexington.