Thoroughfare

Thoroughfare Cemetery is more than just a resting place—it’s a landscape rich with history and cultural memory. Tucked into a pair of gentle knolls, the area reflects traditional American Indian burial practices, where grave sites are often aligned with natural features and celestial markers such as the solstice directions. Subtle depressions in the land, scattered shale fragments, and standing stones suggest that this land holds far more than what is visible to the casual eye.

Among the most compelling finds is a carved “standing stone” placed deep in the nearby woods, shaped into a bird-face effigy—an unmistakable marker of American Indian craftsmanship and spiritual tradition. Though the cemeteries are now bordered by modern fences and impacted by nearby development, elements like this petroglyph, as well as numerous rectangular depressions across the field and woods, point to a once vibrant and respectfully maintained burial ground. The blending of Christian and Indigenous practices in grave markers speaks to the cultural duality lived by the community buried here, and why this site deserves protection and further archaeological study.