Free previewStop 3 of Haunted St. Augustine Walking Tour
The Graveyard That Kept Changing Hands
You're on Cordova Street, at Tolomato Cemetery. Look through the iron gate, under those old oaks, all the way to the back, where a small mortuary chapel stands. Hold onto it. Someone is waiting there.
The ghost tours tell of a young woman nearly buried alive here, waking only seconds before the dirt covered her coffin. I found no record that it happened. What is on record is stranger, because this ground has been claimed by one group after another, and each one left people behind.
It began as a town. A 1737 map of St. Augustine marks a village here called Tolomato, home to Guale Indians who had converted to Christianity, and the Franciscan friars who ministered to them. It sat just outside the city, across from a defensive line of earth planted with cactus and the spiky yucca called Spanish daggers.
That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 3 of Haunted St. Augustine Walking Tour (3 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.
