Historic Jersey City & Harsimus Cemetery

After my first visit to the Historic Jersey City & Harsimus Cemetery, I'd been looking for a chance to go back. Not that I ever need a specific reason to visit a cemetery, but this particular one holds events quite frequently. Most recently they hosted the JC Oddities Flea Market and an oddities flea market in a historic, once-abandoned cemetery is pretty much my dream event so I was looking forward to it for weeks.

I was hoping that the oddities selection would be good, but most importantly cheaper than the over-priced Brooklyn events I've attended. Unfortunately that wasn't really the case—there were some interesting vendors with taxidermy, bones and vintage finds but I only ended up buying one thing (a milk glass bottle from the 1939 World's Fair).

The main attraction ended up being the cemetery itself, and I was happy for the chance to explore its overgrown grounds again. The cemetery was established in 1829, but even before that it was the site of Revolutionary War skirmishes and a War of 1812 ammunition bunker. It was abandoned in 2008 but is now cared for by a group of volunteers, with proceeds from events going to the care and upkeep of the grounds.

In addition to human volunteers, the cemetery is also home to several goats. When I first went they were roaming around, doing their part to keep the grass in check, but for events they're fenced in an area where you can pet and feed them (the dream life, if you ask me).

We had also been lured to this event with the promise of crypt tours, but unfortunately they were cancelled because it had rained heavily the night before and the crypt had flooded. Even still, for just $5 it was the perfect way to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon and support a worthy cause in the process.