I hadn’t set out to visit a cemetery on this particular day. Initially I had come to Wilton to check out a trail that was said to have a waterfall and a few pieces of abandoned farm equipment on it. However, when I got there I found “no parking signs” half a mile in either direction. By the time I found the trailhead which had parking for a few vehicles it was covered in warnings that if I were to park there I’d be risking a $100 fine and a trespassing charge. The trail was “closed until further notice.” I know those words, they mean this is a small town and we don’t want to deal with our bored teenagers loitering and littering here so we’re making it a forbidden zone for everyone. But the good news is I found this cemetery really close to it… and it also was COVERED in signs saying that cars “abandoned” here would be towed as well as a number of rules for the cemetery itself including hours and no planting anything directly in the ground.

WOW. In previous excursions to Wilton I had found it a charming place with a delightful little old timey movie theater and a plant nursery you couldn’t beat but this trail and cemetery were making me rethink my fondness for the town and wondering what kind of stick it had up it’s ass out here in the woodsy parts of it.

I don’t know. But I was going to enjoy the cemetery whether they wanted me to or not. Finding it all was just too serendipitous to not check it out. And it had so much character! I LOVE old slate stones in the middle of the woods and this place was FULL of them dating back to the 1700’s. But what I realized right away was that there were also slate stones dating all the way up until 2006. This… is unusual. Very unusual. In fact that whole side of the cemetery was all slate regardless of age and most had the same traditional patterns on them with weeping willows being the most common. Was this another cemetery rule? That everyone could only get slate memorials? Finally, I noted one modern stone had a dove and a dog carved on it and this somehow made me happy… that here, in a cemetery that seemed to have rules about all the stones being made in to match, that someone still found a way to be an individual.

Later I’d find there was a corner of the cemetery with marble monuments, but they were again, done in the same style you’d see on a stone from the 1800’s. Nothing highly polished or funny colored. Very plain. And the little poems were also quite steady in their message – enjoy today because you might not have a tomorrow. Seemed a little bleak.

And maybe that is why this place is supposed to be haunted – both with apparitions and fairy lights. I had noted a few random stones that seemed to be getting negative attention from what I can guess were local teens. I was unable to find if there was any local folklore about them but I suspect these were the stones the teens used to tease and scare each other with. Every small town has its bullshit stories conceived around the proverbial campfire. I was also unable find out why one was covered in pennies which normally denotes a historical figure of some importance.

Even with all these mysteries and the generally anal-retentive atmosphere I still really enjoyed this place.