Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainFounded by Cape Girardeau's first settler in 1808, this National Register cemetery holds over 6,500 burials — including 1,200 Civil War soldiers — and a ghost called the Tapping Ghost.
500 N Fountain St, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701
Research updated August 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free to visit; haunted downtown tour has separate fee
Access
Limited Access
Historic cemetery with uneven ground, grave markers, and unpaved paths
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1808 · Founded 1808 by Louis Lorimier, Spanish-appointed founder of Cape Girardeau · National Register of Historic Places · Estimated 1,200 Civil War soldier burials, many unmarked · Over 6,500 total burials spanning 215+ years · Final resting place of Louis Lorimier himself
Old Lorimier Cemetery takes its name from Louis Lorimier, a French-Canadian fur trader and Spanish colonial official who founded the town of Cape Girardeau under Spanish land grants and established the burial ground in 1808, the year after Missouri became a U.S. territory following the Louisiana Purchase. Lorimier himself is buried here.
The cemetery's 215-year operational history spans the entire American experience in southeast Missouri. Its more than 6,500 burials include the founders of Cape Girardeau, early settlers of the region, and an estimated 1,200 soldiers from the Civil War — many in unmarked graves, as was common for soldiers buried during active campaigns. The density of unmarked graves makes the true count of interments uncertain.
The cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of its age, its connection to Cape Girardeau's founding, and the range of the population it represents across more than two centuries. It functions today as a public park maintained by the City of Cape Girardeau and is one of the named stops on the city's Haunted Downtown Tour.
Sources
The Tapping Ghost is among the more consistently documented paranormal reports in Cape Girardeau's ghost lore. Since at least the early twentieth century, visitors to Old Lorimier Cemetery have described the same experience: a clear tap on the shoulder, turning to find no one present. The phenomenon has been reported across enough generations that it functions as the cemetery's signature haunting rather than an isolated account.
Additional phenomena reported at the site include hair-tugging — a physical sensation without visible cause — and floating orbs, the latter often captured in photographs taken on the grounds. The orb reports are common enough across cemetery sites to be treated skeptically, but the Tapping Ghost accounts predate the digital photography era and are more specific in their description.
The cemetery is included on Cape Girardeau's Haunted Downtown Tour, which validates the community's attachment to these accounts as part of the city's heritage. The combination of its age (215+ years), its Civil War soldier density, and the specificity of the Tapping Ghost tradition makes Old Lorimier one of the more substantively documented haunted cemeteries in the region.
Notable Entities
Self-guided walk through one of Missouri's oldest active cemeteries, established in 1808 by Louis Lorimier. Over 6,500 burials include many unmarked graves and an estimated 1,200 Civil War soldiers. The Tapping Ghost is associated with this site.
The Old Lorimier Cemetery is a named stop on the Cape Girardeau Haunted Downtown Tour, operated seasonally. The tour covers the cemetery's ghost lore along with other historic sites.
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Atlanta, GA
Historic Oakland Cemetery was chartered in 1850 as the six-acre 'Atlanta Cemetery,' renamed Oakland in 1872, and expanded to 48 acres. Approximately 70,000 people are interred, including roughly 6,900 Confederate soldiers (3,000 unidentified), four Confederate generals, six Georgia governors, 27 Atlanta mayors, Margaret Mitchell, golfer Bobby Jones, and Maynard Jackson, Atlanta's first African American mayor. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 28, 1976.
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Aerial survey · USDA NAIPSaint Joseph, MO
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