When: Friday, October 25, 6:00 PM

Where: Pyeatte Stage; Old Cane Hill Rd., Canehill, AR 72717

What: Murder, Madness, and Mayhem: Tombstones that Tell Tales

Join us for the third annual Cane Hill After Dark, an peek into the spooky side of the Ozarks.

This year’s guest is Abby Burnett, author of Gone to the Grave: Burial Customs of the Arkansas Ozarks, 1850-1950. Abby will talk about an assortment of tales tombstone tell. They memorialize the deceased, but some stones also hint at events, contain added information, or even tell outright falsehoods. These markers help us to get to know the deceased, and their families, in unexpected ways, while proving that you can’t trust something just because it is carved in stone.

This program will answer such questions, such as:

• Did John Poynter really “lay down his life for his friends” or did he brutally kill his traveling companions?

• Why do the “maliciously murdered” Hamby brothers share a marker protesting their innocence, and hinting that they were persecuted?

• What does Charles Breuer’s bronze portrait – with staring prosthetic glass eyes – reveal about the man who commissioned it?

Visitors will have a chance to enjoy enjoy hot cocoa and cider while toasting marshmallows for s’mores by the fireside. This spooky and informative program is for adults 21 +. 

Tickets are free to Historic Cane Hill Members and are $5 for non-members. Not a member? Become one today and get FREE ADMISSION! https://historiccanehillar.org/membership/.

Online sales have ended, but tickets are available at the event.

Free parking is available off of Old Cane Hill Rd across from the Pyeatte Stage. Attendees are encouraged to bring their lawn chairs.

About the Speaker:
Abby Burnett is an independent researcher who studies cemeteries, especially those in Arkansas. She appeared in the Arkansas Educational Television Network’s 2010 documentary, “Silent Storytellers,” has written Gone to the Grave; Burial Customs of the Arkansas Ozarks, 1850 – 1950 (published in paperback in 2015 by the University Press of Mississippi) and authored numerous entries for the online CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Her guidebook to the state’s most unusual graves and graveyards has been accepted by the University Press of Mississippi and is scheduled for publication in 2025.