This strange happening took place back in 1977 when I was 22 years old. Two friends and I were taking a ride on a back road between the small hill towns of Savoy and Florida, Massachusetts. The lonely country road that we were traveling on suddenly ended, so we decided to park our car and take a walk in the woods.

We weren't walking for very long when we came upon a cemetery in the middle of the woods.

Now, there are lots of old cemeteries in these small towns, but that isn't the strange part. The strange thing was, this cemetery looked brand new. There were beautiful flowers and inviting benches scattered throughout the cemetery. The gravestones looked new, but we couldn't get close enough to read them.

The entire cemetery was surrounded by a high, black metal fence, and the gate was locked. The perimeter of the gravestones was lined by a neatly manicured lawn and well-trimmed hedges. Even stranger was the fact that there was no road or path leading to this cemetery in the middle of the woods, so how did the groundskeeper come through the woods with lawnmowers or other tools without a road or path to get there. I'm sure they didn't fly the equipment in and drop it by helicopter.

Needless to say, we were really freaked out. And as I stated before, the cemetery grounds were meticulously taken care of and inviting in appearance. My friends and I wanted to go in that cemetery so bad. Without the gravestones, it looked more like a secret garden.

Anyway, we never went in.

The next day, we came back with a few more friends. We wanted them to see this strange cemetery in the middle of the woods. So we returned to the same spot with three more friends... but we found no cemetery. We knew exactly where the cemetery had been, but it was gone. We searched for hours.

How does a decent-sized, well-maintained cemetery just disappear? It doesn't, so we kept looking. We looked and looked and looked, but to no avail. As dusk approached, we gave up and left.

On two other occasions, we returned and looked again, but we never again found the cemetery. Now, 25 years later, I was telling this story to my 25-year-old son-in-law, who had grown up in the town of Florida, Massachusetts. When I began to explain the cemetery to him, I saw the color completely drain from his face, so I stopped and asked him if something was wrong.

He explained that 10 years prior, when he was 15 years old, he had been riding his minibike through the woods when he came upon a cemetery that looked exactly as I described it. He said he rode his minibike around and around the cemetery trying to figure out how it was so well taken care of and so new looking when there wasn't even a path or a road leading to this cemetery.

My son-in-law repeated that, like the cemetery I saw, it sat smack dab in the middle of the woods, with no way to bring in lawnmowers or other equipment. He claimed that he was so freaked out that he went right home and got two of his teenage buddies to accompany him into the woods on their minibikes. These kids grew up in the area and knew the woods well.

They immediately went back to where my son-in-law had seen the strange cemetery in the middle of the woods... but there was no cemetery to be found. My son-in-law said that he recognized practically every tree and leaf as he and his friends drove their minibikes through the woods. However, when he got to the site where the cemetery should have been, there were just trees, and no sign that there was ever a cemetery on that site.

He said his friends told him that he was crazy, and he was never able to validate his story... until 10 years later when I told him my story of the vanishing cemetery. Apparently, we had seen the same cemetery, and we had no explanation for never being able to find that cemetery again. It still freaks us both out, but at least together, we both have validation that the cemetery did exist, even if only for two days, 25 years apart.

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