The Arkansas Tech University College of Arts and Humanities and Friends of Oak Ridge Cemetery will present a cemetery preservation workshop at 9 a.m. Saturday, April 26.
The event will take place at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Dardanelle, which is also known as Mount Nebo Cemetery. The cemetery is accessible by traveling Arkansas Highway 155 — the road that leads to Mount Nebo State Park — and turning on Winterwood Drive.
Holly Hope of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program will lead the workshop, which is free and open to the public.
“Holly will demonstrate best practices for headstone cleaning before students and community members break out into groups to work on the headstones,” said Dr. Kelly Houston Jones, ATU associate professor of history. “This exercise will aid in both preservation and research of the cemetery. Part of what makes the event special is the intentional blend of student and community participation. My goal is to sustain and grow this community-scholarly collaboration.”
The headstone cleaning is part of an effort by Arkansas Tech history students to create a database with information about the individuals interred at Oak Ridge Cemetery.
“This includes details like names, birth and death dates and documentation of the fraternal orders’ symbols that adorn many of the markers,” said Jones. “Cleaning the stones will allow us to return to the many stones that are currently unreadable and gather the information that is now obscured.”
The database will serve a larger, ongoing project by the ATU Department of History and Political Science. Jones explained the department is “working to preserve, map and research this historically African American cemetery.”
The project started as a collaboration between Jones, Dr. Diane Gleason, professor emerita in the ATU Department of History and Political Science, and James O. Woods, who provides stewardship for Oak Ridge Cemetery.
“Many of our students — both undergraduate and graduate — express an interest in local and public history,” said Jones. “The workshop can give them useful hands-on experience in preservation, allow them to network with like-minded folks in the community and inspire research papers/theses on various aspects of the cemetery’s history. The students have been enthusiastic about building onto the hard work begun by Dr. Gleason and Mr. Woods in preserving this important space.”
Advance registration to participate in the cemetery preservation workshop is not required, but Jones said it would be helpful in obtaining a headcount for the lunch that will follow.
Participants are encouraged to wear comfortable clothing as they would for yard work if they are interested in engaging in the hands-on aspect of headstone cleaning.
Anyone wishing to register in advance is asked to send e-mail to kjones116@atu.edu.
Learn more about the ATU Department of History and Political Science at www.atu.edu/humanities/history.
