Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainSmall Rural Graveyard with a Legendary Black Marble Sphere
Memphis, MI
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free, public cemetery
Access
Limited Access
Grass and narrow dirt road through cemetery
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1903 · Rural Michigan Cemetery · Victorian Funerary Art
Memphis Cemetery sits on the right side of M-19 (Van Dyke Road) as you drive north through Richmond toward the village of Memphis in St. Clair County. The cemetery is modest in scale — a narrow dirt road bisects it — but it holds one of the more architecturally distinctive grave markers in the region.
The Miller family monument, placed in 1903, consists of a large polished black marble sphere set atop a granite pedestal. It marks the grave of Eli Miller, who died in 1903, and his family. The ball's dark, reflective surface has earned it the regional nickname 'the witch's ball.'
For decades, a persistent local claim held that the sphere rotated on its pedestal by itself. The ball has since been cemented in place, which residents attribute to vandalism prevention or structural maintenance. The cemetery remains in use as an active rural burial ground.
Sources
The sphere's polished black surface functions like a convex mirror, reflecting the surrounding cemetery in a distorted, panoramic image. Local tradition — well established by the time Lost In Michigan documented it — holds that faces appear within the stone when you look closely, particularly near Halloween. Whether this is a function of the marble's grain, the viewer's perception, or something less explicable has not been settled.
For years, Memphis residents knew the ball as something that turned. The sphere was said to rotate on its pedestal independently, advancing in small increments between visits. It has since been cemented into position. No mechanical explanation for the claimed rotation was ever publicly documented.
Voices have been reported in the surrounding area, and apparitions described in general terms — figures near the monument after dark. The specificity of the claims is limited; most documentation traces back to regional folklore aggregators rather than named witnesses. The cemetery's isolation, the ball's unusual appearance, and the genuine mystery of the claimed rotation make it a durable local legend.
Notable Entities
A small rural cemetery on M-19 south of Richmond. At the back center stands the Miller family monument — a large black marble sphere on a granite pedestal, erected in 1903 to mark the grave of Eli Miller and his family. Local legend attributes faces in its reflective surface and self-rotation (the ball has since been cemented in place).
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