Travel Through The Centuries-Old Burial Sites Of Inwood

INWOOD, NY — Inwood residents know their community well, but you might not have heard about the lost graves and burial sites discovered more than a hundred years ago in the neighborhood.

In honor of Halloween, the New York Adventure Club is teaming up with the President of the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum and local historian Don Rice to bring people on a virtual journey through the numerous graves, burials, and skeletons of northern Manhattan.

The event will take place on Oct. 30 at 1 p.m., and you can register for it here.

The remains of old cemeteries in northern Manhattan were discovered at the beginning of the 20th century when roads first began to get paved, and urban infrastructure was built.

Here are some of the sites that the virtual "The Graves, Burials, and Skeletons of Northern Manhattan" tour will cover, according to Rice.

• Old colonial graves at the intersection of Dyckman Street and Sherman Avenue
• A larger colonial burial ground east of 10th Avenue and 212th Street.
• A cemetery west of 10th Avenue and 212th Street.
• A burial ground along Fort Washington Avenue for soldiers who died during the American Revolution, most likely during the Battle of Fort Washington in 1776.

The oldest burial ground set to get covered is found adjacent to Seaman Avenue near 204th Street, where the remains of at least eight Lenape individuals were found.

The Lenape people had lived in Manhattan seasonally for several thousands of years before the Europeans arrived, Rice told Patch.

Rice thinks that actually seeing history is a powerful teacher.

"In the right context, when we see the bones and actual physical remains of a person who lived long before us, our reaction is visceral, not textbook, and a connection forms," Rice told Patch. "Looking at a skull, it's easy to see that this was a real person. A person who was alive here, who died here, long before out great-great grandparents were even born. It's no longer abstract. And this feeling can teach perspective in a way that's different from a book."

You can find out more about the virtual tour on an event's page for the trip through Upper Manhattan's forgotten graves.