“Dawn, noon and dewfall! Bluebird and robin / Up and at it airly, and the orchard-blossom bobbin!” Crown Hill Cemetery, the highest point in Indianapolis, is the last resting place of Indiana native and children’s poet James Whitcomb Riley, author of these lines, and there couldn’t be a more fitting place. This, the third biggest non-governmental cemetery in America, has magnificent views and abundant trees, flowers and wildlife in the carefully landscaped grounds.
Winding past romantic-style Victorian buildings, burial sites of public figures and works of art, the cemetery’s 40 kilometres of paths allow you to take in more than 200,000 graves.
In such a vast cemetery, free guided tours provide a great way to see the most important sites and learn about the history of the people here, from women of the Civil War to people who perished during the Flu Epidemic of 1918. You’ll find the graves of American president Benjamin Harrison, notorious gangster John Dillinger and the creator of Sudoku, Howard Garns. At the highest point in the cemetery, the neo-classical tomb of poet James Whitcomb Riley is located in a place where you can enjoy commanding panoramic views of the Indianapolis skyline.
Crown Hill is also the site where over a thousand Confederate prisoners of war are buried. During the Civil War, the Confederates were held at Camp Morton, and their remains were transferred here in 1931. For this reason, if you visit on the last Monday in May, Memorial Day, you’ll find people coming from miles around to dress in period costumes and recreate Civil War life.
With wide, open spaces, Crown Hill is a beautiful place to visit at any time of year, and a haven for wildlife too. Darting in and out of the bushes and buildings, at least 30 white-tailed deer live in the cemetery grounds alongside coyotes and racoons. Red-tailed hawks wheel in the blue sky above searching for prey in the undergrowth, among verdant, blossoming trees and plants.
Crown Hill Cemetery is located 8 kilometres north of central Indianapolis. It is open every day and admission is free.
