BUCKET LIST UPDATE – No. 362: See the face tombstones at Mt. Nebo Cemetery in Clarke Co.

I scratched another item off my bucket list on Saturday when my family and I visited Carlton, Ala. to see the unusual, death mask tombstones in the Mount Nebo Baptist Church Cemetery. Located about 15 miles south of Jackson in Clarke County, Ala., these unusual tombstones are also known as the Isaac Nettles Gravestones.

I’d never heard of these tombstones until about a decade ago when Kyle Crider, the publisher of Strange Alabama magazine, asked me if I knew anything about them. Later, I would read about them in an outstanding book called “Forgotten Tales of Alabama” by Kelly Kazek, the managing editor of The News Courier newspaper in Athens, Ala. Crider and Kazek stirred my curiosity to such a degree that I had to see these grave markers for myself.

Added to the National Register of Historic Places on Feb. 24, 2000, these concrete grave markers feature what is believed to be the death masks of the people buried beneath them. The markers are believed to have been made by Isaac “Ike” Nettles Sr. between 1933 and 1946. Ironically, Nettles is believed to be buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in the one-acre cemetery.

No one knows for sure how many of these death mask markers once existed in the cemetery, but only three remain there today. The largest of the three features three faces and marks the final resting place of “Mother” Nettles, who was born in January 1859 and died July 6, 1933. Another is a marker for Ezella Nettles and is inscribed with the words “Angel” and “Six Dollies.” The other is a marker for “Manul Burell,” who died in 1946.

No one’s exactly sure how Nettles created these death mask markers, but experts think that he made them while his subjects were still alive. According to Kazek’s book and other sources, Nettles is thought to have pressed his subjects' faces into wet sand before pouring a concrete mixture into the impressions left in the sand.

If you’d like to see these tombstones for yourself, here’s how to get there. Take U.S. Highway 43 to Jackson. Turn south onto College Avenue and travel 2.2 miles before taking a slight right onto Commerce Street. Travel about half a mile, then turn left onto Depot Road. Travel another half-mile and keep left at the fork. Then travel another three miles and continue onto County Road 15/Rockville Road. Then travel 10 miles to downtown Carlton, Ala. At the stop sign, turn right onto Choctaw Bluff Road/County Road 19. Travel another mile, then turn left onto Belgreen Road, which is a dirt road. After about eight-tenths of a mile, turn right onto Kentucky Road. Less than 100 feet later, take a slight right onto Mount Nebo Road. Continue down this road until you reach the cemetery and church.

Before I wrap this thing up, I want to make it perfectly clear that if you get the idea to visit this cemetery, do so with the proper respect. This is an actively used cemetery at an active church site. I’d strongly advise you to respect your surroundings and not to touch or otherwise disturb these historically unique markers or anything else on the property.

In the end, how many of you have seen these tombstones? What do you think about them? Can you provide any more information about them? Do you know of any other grave markers like these? If so, let us know in the comments section below.