The Davis Memorial, Hiawatha

In Mount Hope Cemetery in Hiawatha, Kansas, stands one of the strangest monuments in the Midwest. John Milburn Davis, a prosperous farmer, spent the last decades of his life building an elaborate marble memorial to his late wife, Sarah. He commissioned a series of life-size statues depicting himself and Sarah at different ages, from young sweethearts to grieving widower kneeling at her grave. He is said to have spent over one hundred thousand dollars, effectively his entire estate, on the project.

Neighbors called it obsessive. Art historians call it folk monumental sculpture of rare ambition. Davis is said to have died in nineteen forty-seven and to have been buried at the memorial, leaving little to family. The monument draws visitors from across the country who find it equal parts touching and unsettling.