The Little Cemetery That Could: Kelley-Rogers Cemetery, Cameron, Louisiana

Earlier this month, I posted a two-part piece about my day trip to Cameron, Louisiana in search of my great-great-great grandfather's final resting place and Civil War memorial.

What I didn't mention at the time was that there was a third part to the day's events. At the same Cameron Parish courthouse that held the Civil War memorial was a monument to the survivors of Hurricane Rita. The marker also mentioned that 38 out of the 40 local cemeteries were destroyed during the 2005 disaster.

That number haunted me as I drove away from Cameron. Just to the left on the road out of town, I spotted a small cemetery at a corner in the highway. It was one of the 2 remaining cemeteries.

I got out of the car again, just to look at this chunk of land--no bigger than my bedroom--and the 30 or so tightly-packed markers and remains that survived at least two major hurricanes. There was no cemetery sign, and the surrounding chain link fence was bent like a paper clip due to Hurricane Rita. In fact, I didn't even know there was a fence until I saw it through the mud. There wasn't much else separating these graves and the highway.

I took pictures of all the head stones. They were just about the only things left in Cameron, and I figured they deserved a spot in Internet history.

FindAGrave.com helped me learn the name of the Kelley-Rogers Cemetery. I in turn uploaded all my pictures and information I had for the location and those buried there. It's the least I could do for The Little Cemetery That Could.