The story I heard/read was that after a severe forest fire during logging operations years ago, the remaining tree stumps in the valley looked like headstones in a graveyard. Still very few trees of any size there now. But it's a beautiful area.
Only thing to add is the growth is now strong enough that it's name sake is not very apparent any longer. Thicker vegetation has over taken most of this feature. Still beautiful with a lot plant life supporting wildlife of the black bear variety. Don't miss the upper falls. Work the hike. Take water or a purifier. Your never very far from a clear running source.
Yellowstone Prong of the Pigeon River, which flows through Graveyard Fields valley. The valley's name may originate from a time when a great windstorm fell hundreds of spruce and fir trees on its slopes. These moss-covered stumps resembled graves.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org I clipped a reference to peruse at your leisure.
After a Forrest fire years ago, or a very bad windstorm (mixed reports on which natural disaster caused the stumps) the land consumed the old tree stumps and covered them in grass and moss, the people who originally came across it thought all the old stumps covered over looked like tombstones, so they called it graveyard fields.
I understand there was a fire there as well. But there were bolders exposed that resembled gravestones, on the hillside. I could see them when I was a kid, but the vegetation has grown back over them now.
Interesting question...there was some big forest fire here long ago but i am not sure why this name
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