Can you spot the lamb? Find the willow tree? Or scope out the grave of a Naval veteran who served on the Ironclad USS Monitor during the Civil War? These are questions you’ll find yourself asking as you make your way through the new self-guided scavenger hunt at Warwick’s Brayton Cemetery.

There are 3,800 people buried on the 6.5 acre property, located on Post Road just south of Apponaug Village, overlooking Arnolds Neck Drive and Apponaug Cove, the cemetery features 2,948 marked stones, and you’ll feel like you know them all very well by the time you complete the new scavenger hunt, created for Rhode Island Historic Cemeteries Awareness & Preservation Weeks.

That mouthful of a title is a bit of a misnomer, since programs began earlier this month and will run through the end of May. Cleanup events and historical talks are planned for many towns in the state, although Warwick is the only one to boast about a scavenger hunt.

Originally a private property, Brayton Cemetery passed from the family in the 1990s when the owner died, and his daughters were uninterested in maintaining it. Notable occupants include over a hundred Civil War soldiers. Burials from nine smaller graveyards have been moved to Brayton over the years.

“Brayton Cemetery has the most types of headstones in Warwick,” said Pegee Malcolm, who chairs the Warwick Historic Cemetery Commission. “There are slate stones, obelisks, flat stones, ones that look like rocks…”

There are 25 items on the scavenger hunt list, which can be found on the Rhode Island Historic Cemeteries’ website under the events tab. “We put a scavenger hunt together for last year and we had to reschedule it three times because it rained every Saturday,” Malcolm said. “This year we said people can just do it at their own pace.”

Some are broad (a gravestone with flowers on it, or a gravestone from before 1900). Others are very, very specific.

I gave myself an hour to attempt the hunt on one of the few sunny days last week and managed to check 18 of the 25 items on the list. Why couldn’t I find a gravestone in the shape of a tree? That one seems like it should be easy. I found an animal resting atop one stone, but was it a lamb? It was too worn by age and weather for me to know for sure.

“We try to make it a little bit educational and a little bit fun,” Malcolm said about the events planned in the city’s historical cemeteries. “We get good turnout, and people say that they really enjoy it.”

Other events around the state include a tour of the three historical cemeteries at Norman Bird Sanctuary in Middletown, an event to lift and straighten the gravestones at the Ladd School in Exeter, and a headstone cleaning workshop at North Burial Ground in Providence. Details can
be found at https://rihistoriccemeteries.org.

The statewide effort is spearheaded by Christine MacWilliams, who contacts volunteer organizers in cities and towns across the state to coordinate event programming.

“There are about fifty events happening throughout the state,” said Malcolm. “We will have three or four just in Warwick.”

Two dates have yet to be finalized, but one will be a talk about Jewish burial customs and the other will be about a cemetery for slaves of the Waterman family in the 18th and 19th century.

Though it’s not listed on the website, the Cranston Historical Cemeteries Commission is also having a cleanup event this month, at the Rhode Island Training School cemetery on Saturday, April 26. According to Facebook, the Spring 2025 Stakeholders/Community Cookout and Clean Up Day takes place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (rain date is Saturday, May 3, 2025). Participants are asked to RSVP by April 19 to John.Scott@dcyf.ri.gov.

Many people expect their towns or the state to maintain cemeteries, but actually historical cemeteries don’t operate that way. “There are 166 historical cemeteries in Warwick alone,” says Malcolm. “Technically the people that are buried there are the owners. They bought the plot of land, so it’s theirs.”

This leads to issues of upkeep, according to Malcolm.

“People come to us and say, ‘My grandfather is buried in this cemetery and it looks awful—what are you going to do about it?’ Well, it’s his plot of land, so if you’re concerned about it you should go clean it up.”

“The (Warwick) Department of Public Works does help when they can,” Malcolm said. “If we need a tree cut down or find a lot of poison ivy that needs spraying, very often they’ll come out and do it for us. They’ll also accept veterans’ headstones, because those need to be delivered to a public building.” Lawn upkeep is a different issue, and it costs the Commission about $780 each time the lawn company visits.

If you are interested in cleaning up Brayton Cemetery, a group will be there on Saturday, April 26 from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Anyone can help, and organizers recommend bringing gloves and a rake if you can.