Abandoned The label
Why Hookman's Cemetery is called a ghost town
A long-running ghost town directory lists "Hookmans cemetary" among Connecticut's ghost towns. The entry is a visitor's ghost story, not a town history: its remains are gravestones, and its account is of a man named Hookman hanged from a tree in the cemetery after being wrongly accused, whose hook is said to scratch at cars that stall on the road at night. Connecticut's tourism office tells a different version in its haunted cemeteries feature: a caretaker who had lost a hand and wore a hook, said to have hanged himself on the grounds, and a tapping on the roofs of cars parked under certain trees. Both are legends. Nothing in the sources we found records a hanging there. The label is a ghost story's, and the place is a working cemetery.
History
Hookman's Cemetery then
Great Hill Cemetery takes its name from Great Hill, the high ground west of the Naugatuck River in Seymour. The Oxford Historical Society dates the cemetery to 1783 and keeps the list of names from the 1934 survey of Connecticut's cemeteries, when Frank F. O'Brien copied its headstone inscriptions on November 28, 1934. The historic maps below show the hill named on the 1889 Derby sheet and "Great Hill Cem" marked on Cemetery Road on the 1954 and 1964 Naugatuck sheets.
1783. Great Hill Cemetery is established, by the Oxford Historical Society's date.
1934. The headstone inscriptions are copied for the statewide survey (November 28).
1954. USGS maps "Great Hill Cem" on Cemetery Road.
2007. A photo shows the sign "Great Hill Cemetery, No Admittance After Dark" (September 7).
2026. Connecticut's tourism office describes the cemetery as still in use (updated September).
Today
What is there now
The cemetery is a quiet burial ground in the woods off Cemetery Road, with rows of old headstones on a grassy slope under the trees, as the 2007 photos show, and it still takes burials, according to CTvisit's feature, last updated September 2026. Photos taken on September 7, 2007 show a sign at the gate reading "Great Hill Cemetery, No Admittance After Dark." The ghost-hunting habit of going at night runs against that sign. Visit in daylight, keep to the paths, and treat it as the working cemetery it is.
Historic maps
Hookman's Cemetery on USGS maps, 1889–1964
Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the map point. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.
Map & directions
Getting there
Great Hill Cemetery is on Cemetery Road in Seymour, about 3.6 miles by road from downtown Seymour. From New Haven, the route printout runs 13.8 miles on CT 243 and CT 313.
Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL). Times assume dry roads.
- From downtown Seymour, follow Franklin Street to Bank Street.0.2 mi
- Turn right on Bank Street (CT 67), which becomes Oxford Road.1.1 mi
- Turn left on Great Hill Road, which becomes Holbrook Road.2.3 mi
- Turn left on Cemetery Road to the cemetery.under 0.1 mi
- From downtown New Haven, take College Street, Grove Street and Tower Parkway.0.7 mi
- Bear right on Whalley Avenue.1.6 mi
- Turn left on Fountain Street (CT 243).1.9 mi
- Turn right on CT 313, then right again on Maple Street, still CT 313.6.3 mi
- Bear right on Main Street, then turn left on Broad Street (CT 313), which becomes West Street.0.5 mi
- Turn left on West Church Street, which becomes Bungay Road; bear right on Botsford Road.1.7 mi
- Turn right on Canfield Road, left on Mountain Road, then right on Cemetery Road to the cemetery.1.1 mi
Road and visiting notes
- A sign photographed in 2007 reads "No Admittance After Dark."
- It is an active cemetery: respect graves, mourners and any services.
Photos
Great Hill Cemetery in photos
Questions
Common questions
Is Hookman's Cemetery a ghost town?
No. It is Great Hill Cemetery in Seymour, a burial ground established in 1783 and still in use (CTvisit, September 2026). It was never a town.
Is the Hookman legend true?
It is a legend, told in more than one version: a wrongly accused man hanged from a tree, or a hook-handed caretaker who hanged himself. We found no record of either.
Can you visit Hookman's Cemetery at night?
No. A sign photographed at the cemetery in 2007 reads "No Admittance After Dark." Visit in daylight.
Nearby
Ghost towns and sites near Hookman's Cemetery
Straight-line distance to other mapped sites in our Connecticut index.
- Easton12.9 mi SW · Fairfield
- Dudley Town31.7 mi N · Litchfield
- Johnsonville Village34.6 mi E · Middlesex
- Bloomfield37.9 mi NE · Hartford
- Gay City State Park42.4 mi NE · Tolland
- Bara-Hack66.7 mi NE · Windham
Sources
Sources and credits
- ghosttowns.com, Hookmans cemetary, read October 29, 2026: the listing, its location off Cemetery Road in Seymour, gravestones as the remains, and the hanged-man legend.
- CTvisit (Connecticut Office of Tourism), "Haunted Cemeteries", updated September 2026, read October 29, 2026: Great Hill Cemetery also called Hookman's, an 18th-century burial ground still in use, and the caretaker legend.
- Oxford Historical Society, "Great Hill Cemetery, Established 1783", read October 29, 2026: the 1783 date and the 1934 survey of inscriptions by Frank F. O'Brien.
- 2112guy, "Hookman01.jpg" and "Hookman02.jpg", Wikimedia Commons, photos of September 7, 2007: the "No Admittance After Dark" sign.
- OpenStreetMap, Great Hill Cemetery: the map point on Cemetery Road. Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, Derby (1889) and Naugatuck (1954, 1964) sheets.
- Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.
Photo and map credits
- The cemetery sign, "No Admittance After Dark," with headstones behind, September 7, 2007: 2112guy, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
- Old headstones on the grass under the trees, September 7, 2007: 2112guy, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
- Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
- Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Derby 1889, 1:62,500; Naugatuck 1954, 1:24,000; Naugatuck 1964, 1:24,000.