A 200-acre National Register cemetery where the Wright Brothers are buried and the legend of Johnny Morehouse, who drowned in 1860, draws late-night visitors who report seeing the boy playing near his grave
118 Woodland Ave, Dayton, OH 45409
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Free daytime access; ticketed lantern tours run seasonally
Access
Wheelchair OK
200-acre arboretum grounds with paved roads and paths; some areas have uneven terrain
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1841 · National Register of Historic Places · Final Resting Place of Wilbur and Orville Wright · Johnny Morehouse Grave (1860) · Rural Cemetery Movement Design (1841)
Woodland Cemetery was established in 1841 as Dayton's principal burial ground, developed on a 200-acre site designed in the rural cemetery tradition that emphasized landscaped grounds as public parkland. The cemetery became one of the city's most important historical institutions, accumulating the graves of figures who shaped Dayton across its industrial and civic history.
The most famous burials are Orville and Wilbur Wright, the aviation pioneers who grew up in Dayton and conducted their early glider experiments at the nearby Kill Devil Hills before returning to Ohio. The cemetery's historical significance secured its listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
The grave of five-year-old Johnny Morehouse stands apart from the other notable burials in both its character and its lasting cultural impact. Johnny drowned in the Miami and Erie Canal in 1860, and his grave marker — carved with a life-size depiction of a boy and his dog — became a focal point for legend almost immediately after installation. The marker's detail and the story of a child lost to an industrial waterway gave the grave an emotional resonance that has persisted for more than 160 years.
The cemetery operates ticketed evening lantern tours under the name History, Mystery, Mayhem and Murder, one of Dayton's better-established dark-tourism offerings, drawing visitors who combine historical interest with the cemetery's paranormal reputation.
Sources
The legend of Johnny Morehouse has outlasted most cemetery folklore in Ohio. The five-year-old drowned in the Miami and Erie Canal in 1860, and his grave marker — depicting a boy with his faithful dog in carved stone — became the physical anchor for a story that has circulated in Dayton for generations. Late-night visitors have reported seeing the figure of a child playing near the grave, with the dog also sometimes described in accounts. The monument's realistic carving contributes to the location's eerie quality after dark.
The Destination Dayton tourism board notes the cemetery as one of Dayton's most significant haunted locations, citing both the Morehouse legend and separate accounts of Civil War soldier apparitions seen moving through the older sections of the grounds. The cemetery holds the graves of several officers and veterans from the Civil War era, which provides a historical grounding for those reports.
The History, Mystery, Mayhem and Murder lantern tours, run by the cemetery itself, formalize the dark-tourism dimension of Woodland Cemetery as an officially sanctioned experience — a relatively unusual circumstance that places the paranormal dimension within the institution's own programming.
Notable Entities
Explore 200 acres of Ohio's most historically significant cemetery at your own pace. Notable graves include Wilbur and Orville Wright, Civil War generals, and dozens of figures central to Dayton's history. The Johnny Morehouse grave with its carved boy-and-dog monument is a focal point for paranormal visitors.
A ticketed evening lantern tour run seasonally by the cemetery, exploring notable graves, historical events, and the legends attached to the grounds — including the Johnny Morehouse story and Civil War-era accounts.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Ferndale, CA
Established in 1868 on a steep hillside above Ferndale's Eel River Valley, the cemetery served the Victorian dairy-farming and lumber community through its founding generations. Its moss-covered stonework and rhododendron canopy drew the production crew for Stephen King's 1979 Salem's Lot miniseries, which used the site as the fictional Harmony Hill Cemetery.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPGalveston, TX
The Broadway Cemetery complex in Galveston encompasses seven distinct historic burial grounds established between 1839 and 1939, collectively containing an estimated 36,000 or more burials. The complex includes sections dedicated to victims of the 1900 Great Storm — the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history, which killed between 6,000 and 12,000 people in Galveston — as well as yellow fever epidemic victims, Confederate deserters executed by firing squad, and a documented 1894 murder case involving a woman who poisoned her four children.
Cincinnati, OH
Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum, founded in 1844 in Cincinnati, is the second-largest cemetery in the United States by acreage and a designated National Historic Landmark. The grounds, designed by Adolph Strauch in Gothic Revival style, helped define the American 'rural cemetery' movement of the nineteenth century.