I grew up right across the street from what is now the Sherman Branch Mountain Bike Trails. I spent many summers exploring the land, wading through the creeks catching crawdads, climbing trees and swinging on cut vines like Tarzan. I remember one day as I was roaming through the woods I noticed something that did not fit in the landscape, so I decided to take a look and investigate. As I got closer I realized that it was a grave. Of course being only 6 years old at the time my mind started racing and I started thinking about ghost. But I stood fast to see if one would appear. After about 5 minutes my imagination got the best of me and I took off running and as fast as I could. down the hill I ran and when I reached the creek I jump clear over it and landed on the other side. I sat there for a moment listening for anything that may have followed me. There it was, I could hear it running through the leaves. I got up and ran, ran and ran, up the hill and all the way back home. I didn't go into the woods across the street for a while... the woods where haunted! I eventually started venturing back into the woods and resumed my crawdad catching, tree climbing and those important kid things. I often heard something walking around the woods on many occasions, I'd freeze and listen. Was it a ghost, a monster, no it was usually just a squirrel and on a few occasions I actually saw some deer.
From the first day I found the Old Grave as a kid, I had always thought that it was most likely a soldier the Civil War. As I took the photo today, I tried to make out what was on the head stone, without crossing the rock border and being disrespectful. The sun was so bright today and wear on the head stone made it very difficult to read, but by the looks of the head stone I doubt that it is old enough to be a Civil War soldier. I may be wrong. I also seem to recall that there were actually two graves within a few feet of each other and that the other head stone was much smaller and very much older. It may have been that the second head stone was the Civil War grave. I'm certain that there are two head stones in this location and the other has fallen over and covered by time. It has been about 31+ years ago since I last visited the graves.
I spent the better part of 5 years goofing off in the woods of Sherman Branch as a kid until we moved away. As I grew older, my father and I would often hike around this area. During one hike through the woods at Sherman Branch, he and I tried to find the graves with not luck. Eventually I was old enough to get a car and as I drove by this location, I often thought about the old graves as I came down Camp Stewart Road. Then eventually I went into the military and served 4 years aboard the U.S.S Missouri BB63. When my term of service had ended I moved back to Charlotte. Many of my old memories as a child had seemed to vanish, replaced by news ones of new places and experiences. It's strange what you forget when your environment changes.
Flash forward to spring 2007 and I'm on my first ride at Sherman Branch. As I rounded a few corners and climbed a small hill, rounded a few more corners I realized that something looked very familiar... something was special about the section of bike trail I was on. So I got of my bike, looked around and eventually I saw the rock structure. I wondered over to it to get a better look. I had a good idea what it was and figured that it was the old graves I had found as a kid. It was.
The photo of the old grave brings back many old memories for me and I'm glad to see it is still intact. For me Sherman Branch is not just another place to ride, but a part of my life, my childhood and played a role in shaping who I am now.
Tags: Sherman Branch Grave Kid Head Stone
