On an unusually sunny and warm late September Sunday, the Old Gray Cemetery was full of families and historical buffs for the 7th annual Lantern and Carriage Tour.  Visitors enjoyed historical re-enactments, food, and horse-drawn carriage rides.

Shade was a limited commodity while enjoying the events, but everyone seemed interested in what the actors had to say. Re-enactors never broke character speaking with the typical southern drawl and dressed in the appropriate garbs of their characters from the civil war era.

When asked what the idea behind the event was, Alix F. Dempster of the Educational, Historic and Memorial Association said, “It was intended to educate the public and I think if you look around it’s a little different from cemeteries you’re used to.”

Dempster says it is “probably the best out-door art museum in the city of Knoxville."  With the large statues, monuments, and tombs Old Gray Cemetery is picturesquely creepy.