Vandals, Grave Robbers, and Fire Ants Haunt a City's Famous Cemeteries
With big challenges and little support, volunteers are keeping an iconic part of New Orleans from crumbling.
NEW ORLEANSThe neglected, broken roads around Valence Cemetery in New Orleans will shake your car to death. The tombs are in similar disrepair.
As he guides me through the latest vandalism inflicted upon Valence, Adam Stevenson, President of the Save Our Cemeteries volunteer organization, notes the conditions of the brick, marble, and cement.
“What do the citizens want more, streets or cemeteries?” he asks.
New Orleans’ iconic aboveground cemeteries—an adaptation to regional flooding that makes burial untenable—are one of the many reasons tourists flock to the city. But the tombs deteriorate in Louisiana’s extreme weather, and they face break-ins and vandalism from treasure-seekers. City-owned Valence is less famous than some of New Orleans’s 42 other graveyards, so maintaining it hasn’t been anyone’s
