Investigating Texas Cemeteries At Night

We recently received an interesting email about the legal status of cemeteries in Texas. At least it was interesting to us! Back up North, we were always in the habit of asking permission from local law enforcement to enter cemeteries at night, for the purpose of paranormal investigation. We also knew it was against the law to enter a cemetery at night. We assumed it was the same here in Texas. 


I'm quoting part of the email sent to us by a very nice visitor to our site:


".....I noticed something not so accurate on your website about cemeteries in Texas. I'm a mortuary college student and the legal status of cemeteries is very liberal in Texas. Anyone can enter a public cemetery to visit their relatives at any given time they so desire. The only exemption would be privatly owned cemeteries on private (individualy held, fenced in and signs posted) areas. The only real danger that could be associated with cemeteries is with older ones, normally with tombstones dating from the 1800s and onward. These places might have footstones, damaged stones that are left on the ground and tree limbs that pose a tripping hazard."


That being said, we'll be looking forward to night investigations in certain cemeteries now. In the same vein though, old habits die hard with us, and I'm sure we will feel somewhat leery if an officer drives by and sees us walking around, taking photos at night. 


I've toyed with the idea of removing the warning from our web pages, ("Don't enter cemeteries at night, it's again the law"), but I guess we shall keep that warning listed. We know from experience that local law enforcement doesn't take too kindly to those few persons who trample through cemeteries at night, or think it's 'fun' to vandalize final resting places. And we can't blame them for feeling this way. 


But we do thank our dear web visitor for this email, and have posted it for general information.


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