The following article appeared in the East Arkansas News Leader
regarding cleanup efforts
at Old Mount Zion Cemetery
Photo Caption: Bo Hinchey,
309
inmates prove crucial to restoring historical cemetery
By James Langston, New Leader
Managing Editor
WYNNE – The ghosts of pioneers, slaves,
land owners and even Civil War veterans may be resting a little easier as
restoration work on the
What may be the oldest cemetery in
The cemetery sits just two miles southeast of Vanndale, just a stones throw from the campsite where Col.
David Cross and other pioneers laid out plans for what is now
“A lot of people don’t even know this cemetery is back here,”
said Sheriff Ronnie Baldwin.
“We have in the past sent people out to work on cemeteries,”
Bo Hinchey, who Baldwin selected to head up the program and
oversee the 309 workers, said the historic cemetery has slaves buried in the
back of it.
“We started clearing trees and found tombstones we didn’t know
we had,” Hinchey said. “There’s a lot of history out here.”
Records show that the land the cemetery is on was part of 18
acres donated to the
Restoration attempts were made in 1989 and more than 400
unmarked graves were discovered.
In recent months, workers had not only cleared brush and poison
ivy but also erected a new gate and sign, and installed a new barbed wire fence
around the cemetery.
“We couldn’t have done it if I didn’t have Jeff (Bristow) and
Carlos (Burdyshaw),” Hinchey
said.
The two 309 inmates from the sheriff’s department have proved
invaluable to the project.
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