Pine Hill Cemetery Tour slated for Oct. 8-9

By Anna-Claire Terry
Staff Reporter

Submitted photo The Auburn Heritage Association will hold its annual Pine Hill Cemetery Tour Oct. 8-9 from 7-9 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students.

Submitted photo
The Auburn Heritage Association will hold its annual Pine Hill Cemetery Tour Oct. 8-9 from 7-9 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students.

Some of Auburn’s most famous historical characters are waiting to teach visitors of Pine Hill Cemetery about the history of Auburn. As if a lesson in a cemetery is not interesting enough, the most unique aspect of the Pine Hill tour is that the people who are buried there are the ones doing the teaching.
The Auburn Heritage Association conducts the tour every other year in the historic burial site, and more than 100 volunteers light the cemetery with luminaries and dress up as iconic Auburn characters to speak to the audience under the light of a full moon about the lives of each character buried there. This year’s tours will be Oct. 8-9 from 7-9 p.m.
Volunteers in period dress will escort guests throughout cemetery where 170 Confederate soldiers are buried, along with several Auburn University professors and administrators. Characters making an appearance include George Petrie, Robert Wilton Burton, Virginia Howe, the 16-year-old who was buried in her front yard and later moved to Pine Hill; and “Uncle Billy, who is buried above ground in his double bed with his shoes under the bed.
Although, the tour may seem a little scary, Mary Norman, president of AHA, assures parents that children are welcome, and the tour is historical in nature and intended for education and laughs.
The Tallassee String Band will be at the gate to entertain visitors. “Auburn, Sweet Auburn, History, Stories and Epitaphs of Pine Hill Cemetery, 1836-2010,” a book published by the AHA, will also be available for purchase at the gates where tickets, $10 for adults and $5 for students of any kind, can be purchased as well. Parking will be at Auburn Junior High School, and a trolley will shuttle guests to the cemetery.
For more information, contact Mary Norman at 826-0390 or pinetucket@gmail.com.