Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainLaclede County Hilltop Graveyard and Its Blue Mists
Phillipsburg, MO 65722
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free. Rural cemetery.
Access
Limited Access
Hilltop rural cemetery; unimproved access
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1860 · Rural Ozarks Pioneer Cemetery
Lonesome Hill Cemetery sits on a rise in Phillipsburg Township, a rural area of Laclede County between Lebanon and Interstate 44. The cemetery's 39 recorded graves span from the mid-1800s forward, reflecting the settlement of the Ozark highland region during the latter half of the 19th century.
Historical photographs from approximately 1905 document the cemetery's condition and the dress of individuals present, consistent with rural Ozarks community life of that period. The cemetery has been catalogued in Laclede County cemetery records and documented by BillionGraves GPS-based headstone mapping.
The surrounding landscape is wooded upland terrain typical of the Lebanon-Phillipsburg area. The cemetery has received attention in Missouri paranormal tourism circles, with a posted warning prohibiting night visits.
Sources
The blue mist accounts at Lonesome Hill Cemetery are among the more unusual atmospheric phenomena reported at Missouri rural cemeteries. Rather than a figure, a sound, or a temperature shift, witnesses describe a luminous blue fog that comes out of the woods at the cemetery's perimeter.
At least one account — from a woman who visited with her sister and son — describes the mist as actively following the group: 'Something is supposed to come from the trees and chase you around. It has happened to me and my sister and son.'
The specific coloring of the reported mist is uncommon in paranormal folklore, which more typically describes white or gray fog. Blue bioluminescent organisms, light refraction through moisture at forest edges, and other natural optical phenomena are known to occur in Ozarks terrain, though none have been specifically documented at this site.
The posted prohibition against night visits at the cemetery is an unusually formal acknowledgment of the location's reputation — most rural cemeteries do not post such signs — suggesting that local authorities or the cemetery's caretakers have reason to discourage after-dark visits, whether for safety or other reasons.
A small historic hilltop cemetery in Phillipsburg Township. Local legend involves blue mists issuing from the adjacent treeline at night, said to follow visitors. Night visits are explicitly prohibited. The cemetery holds 39 recorded graves dating to the mid-1800s.
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