Just in time for Halloween, a book about metro Detroit cemeteries
has hit the shelves.
Cemeteries in Pontiac, Clarkston, White Lake and other Oakland
County communities are mentioned in "Boneyards — Detroit Under
Ground," by historian Richard Bak.
The book provides a fascinating look at the history of how metro
Detroit developed and spread out from its earliest origins.
From the earliest burial mounds to today's simple street shrines,
the book reveals how local residents interred their dead and honored
their memory.
Bak explores the cultual and business side of dying, from old-
fashioned home funerals to the grave-robbing resurrectionists of the
nineteenth century.
He even explores the so-called "white flight" from Detroit to the
burbs, when people had the bodies of their loved ones moved out of
Detroit with them.
The book is complete with incredible old photos that tell the
history of our area, from Indians and Chief Pontiac, to auto barons.
It's worth sitting on your coffee table.
It is well worth the read, Halloween or not.
It is published by the Wayne State University Press, 1-800-WSU-READ
or by visiting wsupress.wayne.edu
— Reviewed by Julie Jacobson Hines