Crawford's Tornado Graveyard

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this place. Now, the name alone ought to stop you right there on the road. Crawford's Tornado Graveyard.

You roll that around in your mouth and it raises every hair on the back of your neck before you even know the story. And here is the story, friend, or at least what the marker gives us to stand on: this cemetery was established in 1856. That is the whole of it.

A graveyard, set down in Dallas County in 1856, carrying the name Crawford's Tornado Graveyard into history. Designated a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2006. Sometimes the marker doesn't fill in every shadow, and maybe that's fitting.

An 1856 cemetery with a name like that doesn't need much embellishment. The name itself has already done the work. Whoever the Crawfords were, whoever met their end here, and whatever that word tornado meant to the people who chose it, this ground has been holding its secrets since before the Civil War.

Some places in Texas speak loudly. This one just stands there in Dallas County, quiet and old, letting that name do all the talking. And honestly, that might be enough.

What the marker says

Established 1856 Historic Texas Cemetery - 2006