Town with eerie underwater graveyard and hospital ‘one in all most haunted locations’
A huge lake in Florida hosts an underwater hospital next to a “haunted” watery mass burial site.
Lake Okeechobee in Florida is the second-largest body of freshwater in the US and is a famed tourist and fishing spot. But last year, archaeologists made a chilling discovery in the lake’s murky depths – an underwater burial site.
In May 2023, Dry Tortugas National Park announced the finding of remains of a quarantine hospital and cemetery from the 1900s on a submerged island near Garden Key. Scientists identified one grave, with historical records indicating dozens more may have been buried there.
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(Image: NPS Photo by C. Sproul)
“This intriguing find highlights the potential for untold stories in Dry Tortugas National Park, both above and below the water,” said Josh Marano, maritime archaeologist for the south Florida national parks and project director for the survey.
He added: “Although much of the history of Fort Jefferson focuses on the fortification itself and some of its infamous prisoners, we are actively working to tell the stories of the enslaved people, women, children and civilian labourers.”
Marano and his team worked out the site was made up of graves for US soldiers stationed at Fort Jefferson, while the hospital was used to treat yellow fever patients between 1890 and 1900.
(Image: National Park Service)
With the amount of watery tombs hidden beneath Lake Okeechobee’s dark surface, it’s no wonder then that ghost sightings, reported phenomena and unexplained mysteries occur there every year. According to Only In Your State, the area is rumoured to be one of the most haunted places in Florida.
The site was also known for its use as a military prison during the American Civil War, where unspeakable acts of violence and torture were used by soldiers on their captives. As the population of Fort Jefferson grew over time, residents were hit by wave after wave of the mosquito-borne yellow fever, with major outbreaks of the disease killing dozens throughout the 1800s.
And it didn’t get better for that community of Florida residents as the 1900s progressed, either. In 1928 a massive hurricane killed thousands of people when the Lake Okeechobee dam broke. All victims of the natural disaster were buried at one gravesite nearby, which can still be visited today.
(Image: National Park Service)
Marano and his team’s discovery last year doesn’t seem to be the only instance of underwater burial in the lake. In the early 1900s, the southernmost part of the lake dried up more than usual during a particularly dry summer.
Once the water had disappeared from the muddy recesses, hundreds of skeletons were seen washed up on the lake bed, resting in their underwater graveyard.
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