Fox Hollow Cemetery: Stories Laid to Rest

A headstone in the Fox Hollow Cemetery

Many families who lived in the mountains had private family cemeteries. Although only a few gravestones are left, generations of the Foxes are buried here. Observe your surroundings. Can you imagine what this spot would have been like when the Fox family still held funerals here? What did this space mean to the family?
If you are visiting in spring, you may discover flowers that the Fox family planted years ago - frilly old fashioned daffodils and narcissuses, deep purple bearded irises. On the ground of the cemetery look for periwinkle, a low vine also called "myrtle" or "cemetery weed." Periwinkle has blue-violet flowers nestled against dark glossy leaves that make an attractive ground cover and was commonly planted around cemeteries.

How do you protect history?

All cultural resources in Shenandoah are protected. Many cemeteries in the Park are maintained by the families to this day. These places and the history they hold may not last forever - which is why we need to appreciate them while they are still around.
Some history here is already lost. Near here and along the trail you'll find blackheart cherry trees, which the Foxes planted for their fruit. During a visit here in 1976, Lemuel Fox Jr. recalled one of these cherry trees in the cemetery, "I picked many a cherry off that tree. Blackheart cherries...Be plowing corn, and I'd get up there and eat cherries, rest the horse. I'd set up in the tree and eat cherries." This cherry tree that Lemuel remembered was knocked down in a storm a few years past. Other trees that were here were also knocked down - a few tulip trees and spicebushes. The result of this loss is the sunny clearing here today. Can you imagine what this spot will look like in another 20 years? What about 100, or 500 years?
The forest is always changing, and some of that change means that, over time, we will begin to lose the clues of lives once lived here. Some of the loss, like open cornfields becoming forest and the slow crumbling of rock walls may not be immediately evident. As you walk to the next stop just a little ways down the trail, think about what you can do to protect this history.