Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainIndiana's oldest public cemetery, established 1788, with 10,000+ burials and an official ghost story walk.
901 Hart St, Vincennes, IN 47591
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free to visit; Indiana State Museum ghost walk tours are ticketed separately
Access
Limited Access
Historic cemetery with uneven ground, aged stone pathways, and unmarked burial areas
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1788 · Oldest public cemetery in Indiana · Revolutionary War-era burials including Francis Vigo · Indiana Territorial capital history · Thousands of undocumented burials
Greenlawn Cemetery, also known as Vincennes City Cemetery, was established in 1788, making it the oldest public burial ground in Indiana. The cemetery sits in Vincennes, a city that served as the territorial capital of the Indiana Territory beginning in 1800, and its graves reflect that deep historical strata — Revolutionary War-era soldiers, early French settlers, and figures from the frontier period of American westward expansion lie here.
Among the notable interments is Francis Vigo (1747–1836), an Italian-born merchant and patriot who financed George Rogers Clark's 1779 campaign to capture Fort Sackville from the British during the Revolutionary War. Vigo's contributions were historically significant, yet he died impoverished after the U.S. government took decades to repay him; he is buried at Greenlawn, and his story represents the mix of triumph and obscurity that defines the cemetery's population.
The grounds contain thousands of undocumented burials — graves that predate systematic record-keeping or whose markers have been lost to time and weathering. Among the surviving headstones, one in particular draws attention: a badly discolored stone reputed locally to mark the burial site of someone killed by a lightning strike. Whether the discoloration has a natural or chemical explanation remains unresolved.
The Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites includes Greenlawn Cemetery in its official Downtown Ghost Story Walk program in Vincennes, a scheduled event that frames the cemetery and surrounding territorial-era streetscape through documented local history and reported paranormal accounts.
Sources
Greenlawn's status as an active stop on the Indiana State Museum's Downtown Ghost Story Walk gives its legends an institutional legitimacy unusual for cemetery lore. The walk, produced by the state's official museum and historic sites authority, draws on documented accounts from the territorial era and frames the cemetery as central to Vincennes's history of death, loss, and unresolved stories.
Within the cemetery, the badly discolored headstone associated locally with a lightning-strike death draws the most attention. Visitors have reported an unsettled feeling near the oldest sections, where undocumented burials mean the dead below remain largely anonymous. The sheer density of interments — more than 10,000 confirmed, with more unknown — contributes to accounts of the grounds feeling different from ordinary cemeteries of later eras.
Francis Vigo, who died penniless after the government failed to honor its debt to him, is sometimes cited in local tradition as a lingering presence — the kind of unfinished business that ghost lore tends to attach to those who died with outstanding grievances. No specific apparition accounts are attached to Vigo's grave in documented sources, but the narrative structure of his life makes him a recurring figure in Vincennes ghost walk programming.
Notable Entities
Walk among the oldest graves in Indiana, including Revolutionary War-era headstones and the discolored stone said to mark a lightning-strike death. Over 10,000 burials, thousands undocumented.
Official walking ghost tour produced by the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites, visiting Greenlawn Cemetery and the surrounding historic district. Scheduled seasonal event.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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