Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainAn Overgrown Rural Cemetery Outside Bartlesville, Oklahoma
Bartlesville, OK 74003
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages (drive-by)
Cost
Free
Free. The cemetery itself is small; surrounding property is private and owners discourage approach beyond the cemetery fence.
Access
Limited Access
Overgrown rural cemetery off County Road 2700; uneven ground and brush
Equipment
Photos OK
Abandoned Rural Cemetery · Washington County Oklahoma
Jesse Creek Cemetery — spelled Jessie Creek in some sources, including the original Shadowlands submission — is a small abandoned rural cemetery in Washington County, Oklahoma, south of Bartlesville near locally-known landmarks called Haunted Hill and Circle Mountain. The cemetery sits off County Road 2700 in an open space at the edge of the woods, with an abandoned lawn and landscape business adjacent.
No Washington County historical society publication, Oklahoma Historical Society documentation, or NRHP listing tied specifically to this cemetery has been located in publicly searchable sources. Find a Grave and similar genealogical aggregators index the property at the community-contributed level. The cemetery is small enough and remote enough that it has not received scholarly attention.
The surrounding property is private. Local accounts indicate the owners do not welcome visitors beyond the cemetery fence, which has implications for any visit beyond standing at the entrance. Visitors should respect that boundary and not enter the adjoining land.
The cemetery's overgrowth has worsened over the past several decades according to community visitor accounts. The location is functionally an abandoned historic burial ground rather than an actively maintained cemetery.
Genealogical and county-level documentation does exist at modest depth. OKCemeteries.net hosts a Washington County record of Jesse Creek Cemetery, and Find a Grave maintains a community-contributed roster of interments. Grave dates documented in those records extend back to the late nineteenth century, placing the cemetery's founding within the Indian Territory and early Oklahoma oil-boom era — Oklahoma's first commercial oil well was drilled in Bartlesville in 1897, a few miles north of the cemetery.
Sources
The most-repeated phenomenon in Jesse Creek Cemetery folklore is technological malfunction. Visitors with cameras, phones, and audio recorders have described their devices failing to operate properly within the cemetery fence and returning to normal function as soon as they step outside. Battery drain and equipment glitches are consistent across multiple submitted accounts.
Other reported phenomena include disembodied giggling, faint crying, and a general atmospheric unease. The cemetery's overgrown and remote condition supports the latter without requiring paranormal explanation — quiet remote burial grounds at the edge of private woodland produce unease in most visitors.
The folklore does not have a specific anchor event. No documented mass casualty, named departed who is supposed to haunt the site, or attributed incident appears in available sources. The legend is more atmospheric than narrative, more associated with the place itself than with any story explaining why.
Visitors should arrive during daylight, stay within the cemetery fence, and respect the surrounding private property. The legend is well-known in northeastern Oklahoma folklore circles; the actual experience is a quiet visit to a small abandoned cemetery.
Visit the small abandoned cemetery off County Road 2700 south of Bartlesville. The cemetery is set back into the edge of the woods near an abandoned landscape business and is easy to miss while driving. The surrounding land is private; respect the cemetery fence and posted signage.
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