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Boneyards: Detroit under Ground
Silver Award/Regional, ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Awards
From the earliest burial mounds to today's simple street shrines, Detroit Under Ground reveals how Metro Detroiters have interred their dead and honored their memory. Author Richard Bak investigates the history of dozens of local cemeteries and also explores the cultural and business side of dying, from old-fashioned home funerals to the grave-robbing "resurrectionists" of the nineteenth century to modern funeral directors. Bak presents a mix of historic and contemporary photographs to illustrate each site or event alongside lively prose descriptions. Taken together, Bak's informative and often surprising historical snapshots span the entire metro area and three centuries of history.
Boneyards visits the area's largest cemeteries-including Elmwood, Woodmere, Mount Olivet, Mount Elliott-and showcases some of their most intricate and unusual monuments. Bak also introduces readers to abandoned graveyards like William Ganong Cemetery in Westland, Millar Cemetery in Clinton Township, and Beth Olem Cemetery inside the GM Poletown Plant. Bak includes photos of some of the city's largest funerals, from those of automaker Henry Ford and orchestra conductor Ossip Gabrilovitch to civil rights icon Rosa Parks and rapper DeShaun "Proof" Holton. In addition, Bak tells the stories of the ordinary and the unclaimed in local cemeteries, along with the social changes like the creation of a "drive-through" funeral home in the 1970s, the "white flight" of interred family members from Detroit cemeteries, and the trend of local cemeteries adding graves that face Mecca to accommodate the growing Muslim population.
Ultimately, Bak proves that our treatment of the dead reveals much about our culture and our values. Boneyards will be intriguing reading for Detroit historians, local residents, and anyone interested in the customs of memorializing past generations.
From the earliest burial mounds to today's simple street shrines, Detroit Under Ground reveals how Metro Detroiters have interred their dead and honored their memory. Author Richard Bak investigates the history of dozens of local cemeteries and also explores the cultural and business side of dying, from old-fashioned home funerals to the grave-robbing "resurrectionists" of the nineteenth century to modern funeral directors. Bak presents a mix of historic and contemporary photographs to illustrate each site or event alongside lively prose descriptions. Taken together, Bak's informative and often surprising historical snapshots span the entire metro area and three centuries of history.
Boneyards visits the area's largest cemeteries-including Elmwood, Woodmere, Mount Olivet, Mount Elliott-and showcases some of their most intricate and unusual monuments. Bak also introduces readers to abandoned graveyards like William Ganong Cemetery in Westland, Millar Cemetery in Clinton Township, and Beth Olem Cemetery inside the GM Poletown Plant. Bak includes photos of some of the city's largest funerals, from those of automaker Henry Ford and orchestra conductor Ossip Gabrilovitch to civil rights icon Rosa Parks and rapper DeShaun "Proof" Holton. In addition, Bak tells the stories of the ordinary and the unclaimed in local cemeteries, along with the social changes like the creation of a "drive-through" funeral home in the 1970s, the "white flight" of interred family members from Detroit cemeteries, and the trend of local cemeteries adding graves that face Mecca to accommodate the growing Muslim population.
Ultimately, Bak proves that our treatment of the dead reveals much about our culture and our values. Boneyards will be intriguing reading for Detroit historians, local residents, and anyone interested in the customs of memorializing past generations.
248 pages, Hardcover
First published September 15, 2010
1 person is currently reading
67 people want to read
About the author
Richard Bak
59 books10 followersRICHARD BAK is a Detroit-based journalist and the author of twenty-five books, including 'Henry and Edsel: The Creation of the Ford Empire' and 'Peach: Ty Cobb in His Time and Ours.' He has received three ForeWord magazine Book-of-the-Year awards, the Stuart D. and Vernice M. Gross Prize for Literature, and two Emmys for his work as writer and coproducer of "Stranded at the Corner," a feature-length documentary about the fight to save Detroit's Tiger Stadium.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 9, 2011
This beautiful collection combines historic photographs with modern black-and-white photos of cemeteries in Detroit and the surrounding cities. Richard Bak provides a page of explanation and description for each photo, which makes for a quick read full of fascinating tidbits of information. I can't wait for summer to come to Michigan, so I can go poke around the graveyards in Romeo and Royal Oak now.
March 9, 2011
I loved this so much I blogged about it. :-)
March 25, 2020
More than just a book about cemeteries. Filled with great history of Detroit and surrounding areas. I appreciate the little stories and tidbits of information. I would love to see a second book referencing more cemeteries in the Macomb and St. Clair counties.
February 28, 2011
This is a handsome coffee table sized book of the history of Detroit's cemeteries and memorials, is full of black and white photos and small stories of heroes and villains of Detroit. It starts with the burials of people in the 1830's cholera epidemic through today.
A lot of what is in this book can be generalized to the United States as a whole. I learned that the embalming did not become common until the 1880s. Many people sick from the cholera were buried alive. People who were in comas were also thought to be dead. My own great grandfather, although not in Detroit was put outside in the dead of winter when he was thought to be dead. Later when a relative came back to take measurements for his coffin, the relative noticed that he was alive.
There are also stories that are specific to Detroit, the funerals and burials of the greats of the automobile industry, of the funeral customs of different ethnic minorities, of grave snatchers and style of headstones through history, the burial of the poor and prisoners.
Richard Bak states that our treatment of the dead shows our values and culture. You can see for yourself the shift through the history of burials.
I recommend this book for anyone interested in Detroit or the history of cemeteries in United States.
A lot of what is in this book can be generalized to the United States as a whole. I learned that the embalming did not become common until the 1880s. Many people sick from the cholera were buried alive. People who were in comas were also thought to be dead. My own great grandfather, although not in Detroit was put outside in the dead of winter when he was thought to be dead. Later when a relative came back to take measurements for his coffin, the relative noticed that he was alive.
There are also stories that are specific to Detroit, the funerals and burials of the greats of the automobile industry, of the funeral customs of different ethnic minorities, of grave snatchers and style of headstones through history, the burial of the poor and prisoners.
Richard Bak states that our treatment of the dead shows our values and culture. You can see for yourself the shift through the history of burials.
I recommend this book for anyone interested in Detroit or the history of cemeteries in United States.
September 12, 2012
This is a wonderful book. Great photos and interesting information about cemeteries and graves in Detroit as well as its suburban areas. The content is not of interest only to Detroiters. It contains history and general information as well as pages on unique graves that would appeal to anyone interested in cemeteries and graveyards.
December 4, 2010
I'd love to own this one! Contains photographs of funerals, cemeteries and notable monuments in the Metro Detroit area - many going back to the nineteenth century. With each photo, a corresponding history or story. All in beautiful black and white - well-researched, too.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews