Anna Foster's grave, Barren Fork

Kentucky · United States · Cemetery

A house was built around a grave in this Kentucky burial ground. Anna Foster died at twenty eight. Sometimes the house is locked and sometimes it is not.

In a graveyard at Barren Fork near Whitley City, Kentucky, someone built a house around a grave.

The woman inside it was Anna Foster, and she died at the age of twenty eight. Local tradition calls her a witch, which is what small communities in this part of the country called a woman who did not fit, and the structure over her grave is read as containment rather than shelter.

Grave houses are a genuine Appalachian tradition, built to protect a burial from weather and animals rather than to hold anything in, and they are found across Kentucky and Tennessee. That is almost certainly what this is.

What visitors report is a matter of access. Sometimes the house is locked. Sometimes it is not, and nobody local claims to know who is deciding.

The other consistent report concerns the road in. Turning onto it, people describe the temperature dropping sharply, in summer as much as in winter.

This entry was listed for years under the wrong name before a correction in February 2004.

FAQ

Where is Anna Foster's grave, Barren Fork located?

Anna Foster's grave, Barren Fork is in Kentucky, United States.