Burial Ground in Strip Mall Parking Lot

Sand Springs, Oklahoma

The Tullahassee Creek Indian Cemetery opened for business in 1883 and received its last body in 1912.

Sixty years later, peace was broken by the rumble of bulldozers and the smell of asphalt; progress had arrived! Keystone Plaza (now known as Atwoods Plaza) went up next door and covers nine acres, with its eponymous clothing-and-hardware anchor store, a Radio Shack, a Family Dollar, and other touchstones of civilization. The parking lot encircles and dwarfs the tiny Cemetery, which lies toward the outer rim, surrounded by subprime spaces.

The burial ground is also adjacent to a satellite business, "Torchies," a local bar. A sign on its door reads: "No drugs, No gang colors, No bad manners."

In late 2006 Atwoods Plaza was sold to a group of California investors for $3 million. We hoped that they might have a dark sense of humor and bring a Halloween store into the strip mall, but thus far no such luck.