Behind Wilmington’s Maides Park near Smith Creek, an African-American cemetery that dates back to the 1800s is getting a second life.
Volunteers associated with the Historic Wilmington Foundation and researchers from the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) are working to find lost graves and clean up the formerly overgrown and largely forgotten Maides Cemetery that’s believed to be the final resting place of more than 200 people.
“I think people are interested in discovering and preserving those markers, memories from earlier times,” said Kathy King, who has relatives buried at the cemetery. “People care.”
Cemeteries are meant to help following generations remember people and cultures. But in many parts of coastal North Carolina, those historical monuments are being lost. Some is simply due to the passing of time and descendants dying or moving away. But other historical burial sites are under threat by Mother Nature, impacts being amplified by climate change.
Protecting history
In 2018, two major hurricanes, Florence and Michael, slammed the Southeastern U.S., causing more than $23 billion in damages just in North Carolina. Historical sites didn’t escape the wrath of the storms, with many of the same buildings and cemeteries having weathered the impacts of Hurricane Matthew only two years earlier.