It’s been a little while since my last blog post. Life has been keeping me busy lately, and the blog has had to wait its turn.

But with October here, I’m excited to get back to sharing some cemetery stories!

October seems like a good time to explore some of the spookier side of cemetery photography. So, over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing a few stories with a little mystery mixed in.

This week, I want to share my experience visiting Mizpah Pioneer Cemetery in Muskoka.

I visited Mizpah earlier this year. I went there to explore the cemetery, photograph the gravestones, and see what I could learn about the people buried there. I also had a rather strange experience when it was time to leave.

A Cemetery Trail Through the Woods

Mizpah Pioneer Cemetery is a little different from the cemeteries I usually visit. Instead of rows of graves spread across an open field, this cemetery follows a trail through the woods. A simple wooden arch marks the entrance, along with a large, hand-painted sign that tells some of the cemetery’s history.

I have a soft spot for handmade signs. There’s just something about them that makes a place feel a little more personal. This one gives visitors a glimpse into the people and community that once existed here.

During our visit, there were several fallen trees along the path, so we had to climb over them to reach some of the gravestones on the other side. We did our best to visit every grave we could find as we made our way along the trail.

It’s definitely not your typical cemetery layout, and I found that made exploring it even more interesting.

A Little History

The pioneer community of Mizpah was established in 1885 and was originally known as Nelson’s Appointment. The name changed to Mizpah after a church was built in the area. The cemetery sign explains that the name comes from a passage in Genesis: “The Lord watch between me and thee when we are absent from one another.”¹ By 1910, most of the families who had settled there had moved away.²

According to the sign at the cemetery entrance, the pioneers who settled here carved their homes and lands from the surrounding forest. The families remembered at the cemetery include the Harts, McGinases, Nelsons, and Halls.¹

The cemetery was used for burials between 1884 and 1905. Only a small number of memorials remain today, and there may be other graves in the surrounding forest whose markers have disappeared over time.²

The community church once stood beside the cemetery. According to the entrance sign, it was later rebuilt as a school and eventually became a home nearby.¹

Among the surviving gravestones are members of the Hart family. Herman Hart died in 1891 at the age of 83, while Thomas Alvin Hart died in 1886, at just three years old.³

Thomas Alvin Hart shares a memorial with other members of his family, and the stone includes the epitaph “We loved them in life / Let us not forget them in death.”³

The cemetery also has the grave of an unidentified Indigenous person. The sign says they were buried with a blanket for a shroud.¹ The grave is marked by a wooden cross that reads, “An Indian 1884.”

The cross is about as tall as I am and looks fairly new, considering the year engraved on it. There were around eight stones perched on top of it, along with a couple of pouches of tobacco.

It’s a distinctive grave, and I found myself wondering about the person buried there. Who were they? How did they come to be buried here? Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any information about them.

Mizpah Pioneer Cemetery, Grassmere ON ©2026

After my visit, I tried looking for ghost stories or reports of hauntings connected to the cemetery, but I couldn’t find much. That surprised me a little, considering the strange experience we had when it was time to leave.

After we had walked the entire trail, climbed over fallen trees, and done our best to visit every gravestone, we made our way back to the car.

Nothing unusual had happened while we were in the cemetery. It had been a quiet visit, and we were ready to head home.

Then my car decided it had other plans.

I recently bought a new vehicle, one with a lot of electronic features, including a push-button start. I started the car and put it in reverse to leave. Suddenly all the emergency lights came on and the car stopped responding. The engine was running, but the car wouldn’t move.

I tried putting it in drive, then reverse again, but nothing happened. The parking brake wasn’t on, and I had no idea what was wrong. Since the cemetery is pretty remote, I had a brief moment of panic wondering how we were going to get home if I couldn’t get the car moving.

I took a breath, turned the car off, and waited a few seconds before starting it again.

Everything was completely normal. The emergency lights didn’t come back on and the car responded like it should. We were able to leave without any problems.

Whatever caused it, it’s something I’ve never experienced before or since.

Was it just a glitch with my new car? Maybe. It definitely gave us something to talk about on the drive home.

My mother and I joked that maybe the residents of Mizpah weren’t quite ready for us to leave.

Thanks for reading!

---

References:

1. Mizpah Pioneer Cemetery entrance sign | Photographed during visit
2. Mizpah (ghost town) | Ominous
3. Mizpah Pioneer Cemetery Memorials | Find a Grave