Matt Hamilton/Daily Citizen-NewsFrom left, Marvin Sowder, local Civil War historian and volunteers Marilynn Sosebee, Bill Schmidtke and Dan Lawson clean up the Confederate Cemetery in Dalton's West Hill Cemetery on Saturday during National Park Day. 

DALTON, Ga. — As Sheila Clark raked piles of leaves in the Confederate Cemetery in Dalton’s West Hill Cemetery Saturday, she said it brought back memories from her childhood.

“For several generations my family was always involved in cleaning cemeteries,” she said. “It’s something I grew up doing once a year.”

Clark, a member of the Civil War Roundtable of Dalton, was one of about a dozen local volunteers cleaning the cemetery on National Park Day, an annual event observed in 32 states.

Volunteers spruced up the cemetery which contains hundreds of graves of soldiers who died in Dalton during the Civil War when the city was a hospital zone in the early 1860s.

Prater’s Mill in Varnell was also targeted as a cleanup site on Saturday. The grounds around the grist mill, built in 1855, include an 1898 general store, the 1915 Shugart cotton gin, the 1935 Westbrook barn, an office dating to 1890 of Dr. John Lacewell, a 1974 train caboose and other structures. An annual country fair is held there in October.

Clark, who moved back to this area from Florida in 2015, said she doesn’t have any “direct relatives” buried in the cemetery.

“It feels good to do something that brings back good memories about the community I was raised in,” she said.

Local historian Marvin Sowder said although upkeep on the cemetery is done year-round, National Park Day is good timing to clean up before the Confederate Memorial Day celebration on April 27 this year.

“We’ll have a big crowd on Memorial Day under the trees for shade and we don’t want anything falling on anyone,” he said as volunteers raked leaves and bagged piles of limbs and twigs that had fallen recently.

Sowder said a cemetery sexton has been a “big help” with his daily upkeep.

“We’ve also been repairing the fence around the cemetery,” he said, adding that the north side of the fence is in “bad shape” from two trees falling on it and sustained damage after a vehicle ran into it.

“If we don’t run out of funds we plan to run a plumb line through rows of headstones and repair the broken ones,” he said. “We want to get them all the same height and in a straight row so it will look like other national cemeteries.”

Sowder said the Henderson Family Cemetery Foundation gives the Civil War Roundtable of Dalton a “significant amount” of money each year to maintain the cemetery.

“Over the years we’ve been able to hire a good person to repair the fence and his work speaks for itself,” Sowder said. “The fence was put up in 1900 and hasn’t had any major repairs. It’s an old wrought iron fence, but if it’s taking care of right, it will last forever and that’s what we’re hoping for.”

Bill Schmidtke said he and girlfriend Marilynn Sosebee volunteer at various sites several times a year.

“It’s great to see people repair things that need it,” Schmidtke said. “Marvin is great about getting things taken care of so I’m really happy to see the fence getting repaired.”

This year Schmidtke started a new tradition — he placed fresh pink tulips on the grave of Anna S. Walker, the only woman buried in the cemetery.

Sowder said Walker was the wife of Paul B. Walker, a veteran who served from 1861 to 1865 with Georgia D, 12th Georgia Infantry.

“He wanted to be buried in the cemetery, but only if his wife could also,” Sowder said.

Sowder said the men buried in the cemetery sacrificed a lot.

“These fellows are Americans and a lot is said now about our Confederate monuments, but you can’t bury history or change it,” he said. “These guys gave all they had and that’s their life, let’s remember them.”

Sowder said national projects like Park Day show that people care.

“They help keep cemeteries, battlefields and parks cleaned,” he said. “They are all projects worthy of our time and energy.”