Halloween Chicanery: Do You Know What You’re looking At?
In addition to ghosts and pumpkins, gravestones and fencing are common Halloween decorations. But if one of these fake graveyards gets captured in aerial imagery, how do you know you’re not looking at a real cemetery? A critical image interpreter, no matter what perspective, must be able to spot the fake.
While verifying structure points, remember to consult multiple sources of imagery showing different perspectives, acquisition dates, or media types and look for associative elements to provide context. Oftentimes what you see may be misleading. If you need a refresher, check out the article, ‘Checking Multiple Imagery Sources’ from the April 2023 newsletter for more information.
Example 1:
The Fayette Monument Company (Shown left and letter C below) is a manufacturer of headstones, plaques & monuments for the funeral industry. From both ground and aerial views, you may be deceived by a few of its offerings placed outside their business, that it resembles a small cemetery plot. The presence of nearby The Lexington Cemetery (Letter B) and Calvary Memorial Cemetery (Letter A) may muddle rather than help your investigation to determine if the headstones outside the Fayette Monument Company represent real interments.
Example 2:
As mentioned above, it's common around Halloween to see tombstones or fencing in front yards mimicking burial grounds. This Google Street View image captured in October 2018, shows this home’s Halloween decorations. It's likely the webby fence alerts you that this isn't a real cemetery, but you may confuse it with Moses Abbott Cemetery, a roadside cemetery located in Shapleigh, Maine.
Can you tell which image contains a real cemetery? During Halloween, homes typically decorate their front lawns with tombstones resembling a real cemetery.
Example 3:
While no one is buried in the front lawn of the Wattles House in Omaha, Nebraska, the architectural style by famed Omaha architect Thomas Kimball, gives this home a spooky vibe. This private home is designated an Omaha Historic Property, which you can read more about via the Landmarks Heritage Preservation website.
If you have other sources of imagery or would like to share any of your own examples, please send us an email at nationalmapcorps@usgs.gov.