Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainConstruction of a pedestrian ramp to the Big Four Bridge in 2018 unearthed an estimated 350 to 700 Civil War burials six feet below this Jeffersonville park — soldiers whose cemetery had been built over and forgotten.
Colston Ave, Jeffersonville, IN 47130
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Public park; free access
Access
Wheelchair OK
Public park with paved paths near the Big Four Bridge pedestrian ramp
Equipment
Photos OK
Civil War Burial Ground — 350 to 700 Burials · Union and Confederate Soldiers · Big Four Bridge Pedestrian Development · Forgotten Military Cemetery Rediscovered 2018
Jeffersonville's Colston Memorial Park sits near the Indiana approach to the Big Four Bridge, the former railroad span across the Ohio River that has been converted to a pedestrian and cycling bridge connecting Indiana to Louisville, Kentucky. The park and its surroundings developed over land that had once served as a Civil War burial ground — a fact that was not widely known until construction work made it unavoidable.
In 2018, during excavation for a pedestrian ramp connecting the park-level approach to the Big Four Bridge, construction workers encountered human remains six feet below the surface. The News and Tribune reported on the discovery as work halted; further investigation determined the extent of the burial field. Estimates placed the number of individuals interred between 350 and 700, with most identified as Civil War soldiers — a mix of Union and Confederate dead whose original cemetery had been established during or after the war and had subsequently fallen into such disrepair that its location was effectively lost.
WHAS-11 covered the story as local news of unusual historical significance: a functioning city park sitting atop a largely forgotten military burial ground of considerable scale. Clark County historical records and local genealogical sources document the wartime use of Jeffersonville as a staging and transit point for troops moving across the Ohio River, which explains how a military cemetery of this size could have accumulated in the town.
Sources
The IUS Horizon documented apparition reports at Colston Memorial Park that predate the 2018 construction discovery — residents and visitors described encountering figures in Civil War-era dress in and around the park. The excavation that followed the 2018 construction find gave those accounts a different weight: the land had, in fact, contained hundreds of Civil War-era burials the entire time.
The conjunction of the unexplained sightings and the subsequent confirmation of buried soldiers gives the site an unusual structure for a ghost-story location — the physical evidence arrived to corroborate the legend rather than the other way around. The burial ground includes both Union and Confederate dead, reflecting Jeffersonville's position as a border-state transit point where soldiers from both sides passed through or died in proximity.
Colston Memorial Park sits above an estimated 350 to 700 Civil War-era burials discovered during construction of the Big Four Bridge pedestrian ramp. The site is a public park with open access; the burial ground lies beneath the surface.
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