MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — The Red Hill Prison Cemetery, where hundreds of former inmates are buried, was for decades a forgotten place in Milledgeville and Baldwin County.

No longer is that the case, thanks to volunteers calling themselves Friends of Red Hill Prison Cemetery.

The cemetery is at the end of an unpaved portion of Meeks Road, once known as the Old Stagecoach Road, which ran from Milledgeville to Monticello in Jasper County. It borders the south side of the cemetery, which is the final resting place of more than 600 men and women who died while incarcerated at Georgia State Prison Farm over more than a century. The majority of those inmates were African American.

The Georgia Trust included the cemetery on its list of “Places in Peril” for 2022.

Edwin C. Atkins, a Milledgeville and Baldwin County historian who now lives in Macon-Bibb County, heads the group interested in the restoration and preservation of the historic prison cemetery where people were buried in unmarked graves.

“This is an historic site, which has merit and should be included in plans to create public access to the cemetery,” Atkins said, while he and others were involved in a recent weekend clean-up of the property. “We’re asking that the state make this area a bicycle path. We hope to one day in the near future see that bicycle path link up to the one in Milledgeville and Fishing Creek that ends up at Williams Park to continue along the farm road down here to the old Stagecoach Road and keep going.”

Atkins is convinced the bicycle path would help bring people to the cemetery.

“If this cemetery is not a magnet within five years, nobody is going to come here,” Atkins said. “And by and large, people aren’t interested in looking at old prison cemeteries. But since this is a biking community, and if the bike trail was expanded to include this area, then people would be a lot more apt to come here.”

Atkins said he has talked with Milledgeville Mayor Mary Parham-Copelan and that she has expressed support for such an idea. He said he has also discussed the idea with Baldwin County Commissioner Kendrick Butts. “He seems to be supportive of the idea, too,” Atkins said.

Coinciding with that idea, Friends of Red Hill Prison Cemetery also is requesting through a state license agreement that state officials construct a historic nature and bike trail that would allow families of those buried there, as well as the general public, an opportunity to visit the cemetery.

Currently, the cemetery is inactive, but with creative marketing, he said, the cemetery could become a historic tourist site.

“The Walter Williams Recreation Park would benefit from a destination bike path from the old Georgia State Prison Farm to the cemetery, and down the old Stagecoach Road,” Atkins said.

There is no public access to the cemetery, but Atkins and his volunteers are determined to change such soon. The group has already worked to gain legal access to the property in its efforts to clean up and find more gravesites.

“This is a very important project to us all because it’s about preserving history and remembering these people with the sort of dignity they deserve,” Atkins said.

The group is also searching for more graves.

“We know there are a lot more graves here and we’re determined to find them,” Atkins said.

He said some of the descendants of those buried at Red Hill Prison Cemetery also are interested in supporting and preserving the cemetery.

“All of them have requested that we perform the task of discovery with due diligence in order to give their family members dignity,” Atkins said.

Most of the unmarked graves at the cemetery thus far have been discovered on the east side of the unpaved portion of Meeks Road.

“We’ve been able to identify them by old metal license plates.” he said, explaining that someone digs down into soft areas of the dirt looking to find a metal license plate, which indicates someone had been buried there.

Atkins said he believes that many more graves will be found along transmission lines that are owned by Georgia Transmission Corp.

“While the 2016 SAS survey estimates that as many as 600 to 650 graves may make up the cemetery, other historical references have indicated there could be as many as 1,500 to 2,000 graves here,” Atkins said.

For the past couple of weekends, Friends of Red Hill Prison Cemetery has been busy mowing grass in a couple of different areas and searching for more gravesites.

“Granite markers will be part of our charitable initiative to raise funds to have each memorial sponsored by a donor,” Atkins said.

The work in the cemetery has been overseen by state Rep. Rick Williams, who also owns Williams Funeral Home and Crematory in Milledgeville, Eatonton and Gordon.

“Rep. Williams has been behind this project from the beginning,” Atkins said.

For more information about Red Hill Prison Cemetery, Atkins can be reached at 912-861-8024 or by email at RedHillPrisonCemetery@gmail.com .