Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainA roughly 10-acre 19th-century cemetery in the historic mill village of Bagdad, Santa Rosa County, where local legend says a granite ball tombstone slowly rotates on moonless nights and three obelisks known as 'The Sentinels' keep watch.
Pooley St (end of street), Bagdad, FL 32530
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free to visit during daylight hours. Maintained by the Bagdad Historic Cemetery Association.
Access
Limited Access
Grassy cemetery grounds with sandy paths, mature trees, and some uneven and overgrown areas.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1840 · Historic cemetery (~10 acres, ~1,800-2,000 interments) within the Bagdad Village Historic District · Burial place of Bagdad founder Joseph Forsyth and shipbuilder Martin F. Bruce · Maintained by the Bagdad Historic Cemetery Association (nonprofit, est. 2006)
Bagdad is one of the oldest mill villages in the Florida Panhandle, built up around lumber and shipbuilding on the Blackwater River east of Milton in Santa Rosa County. The surrounding Bagdad Village Historic District preserves much of the 19th- and early-20th-century character of the community, including its churches, homes, and the historic cemetery.
The Bagdad Historic Cemetery occupies roughly ten acres, bordered by houses on three sides and forest on the fourth, and holds on the order of 1,800 to 2,000 interments. Among the most notable is Joseph Forsyth, regarded as the founder of Bagdad, whose grave is marked by an impressive nine-foot obelisk. Also buried there is Martin F. Bruce, who operated a shipyard on the shores of the Blackwater River at Bagdad for some sixty years. The cemetery's monuments range from simple markers to ornate Victorian obelisks and statuary, reflecting the prosperity of the mill town's leading families.
The cemetery is cared for by the Bagdad Historic Cemetery Association, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit formed in February 2006 to preserve and maintain the grounds. It has at times been listed among Florida's endangered historic cemeteries, and preservation groups have worked to document and protect its aging monuments.
Because of its age, its concentration of striking 19th-century monuments, and its setting in a well-preserved historic village, the cemetery is both a genealogical resource and a destination for visitors interested in regional history and folklore.
Sources
The signature legend of Bagdad Historic Cemetery attaches to a large round granite ball tombstone in the southeast corner of the grounds, near the exit road. According to local lore long repeated by visitors and on regional folklore sites, on dark, moonlit nights the granite sphere can be seen — and even heard — slowly rotating in its pedestal. Three adjacent obelisks have, for as long as anyone recalls, been referred to as 'The Sentinels,' cast in the lore as silent guardians of the cemetery.
Visitors have also reported the sound of children laughing during the daytime, seeming to come from the overgrowth just outside the cemetery, with no children to be found when the source is sought. These reports, originally circulated through the Shadowlands index, are echoed across regional cemetery-folklore accounts and local history features.
The site has also drawn paranormal investigators. The Pensacola Paranormal Society investigated Bagdad Cemetery in June 2008 and reported sustained spikes in EMF (electromagnetic field) readings along the northern road toward the western end, with readings rising and holding steady for several seconds near a tombstone marked 'MALONE.' Such EMF anomalies are presented by investigators as suggestive rather than conclusive, and HauntBound records them as part of the cemetery's documented investigation history, not as proof of the supernatural.
Visitors should be aware that the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office is known to patrol the cemetery at night because of past vandalism and trespassing; respectful daytime visits are the appropriate way to experience the site.
Notable Entities
Walk the historic burial ground, find the graves of Bagdad founder Joseph Forsyth and shipbuilder Martin F. Bruce, and locate the legendary 'rotating ball' tombstone and the obelisks known as 'The Sentinels.'
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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