Approximately 20 individuals attended a cemetery preservation workshop hosted by the Arkansas Tech University Department of History and Political Science at the close of the spring 2025 semester.
The event took place at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Dardanelle, which is also known as Mount Nebo Cemetery. Holly Hope of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program led a workshop on how to properly clean a headstone.
The headstone cleaning was 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 Dr. Kelly Houston Jones, ATU associate professor of history. “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 students have been enthusiastic about building onto the hard work begun by Dr. Gleason and Mr. Woods in preserving this important space.”
Jones said the group discussed the possibility of applying for a National Register of Historic Places listing for the cemetery. She and ATU history graduate students will continue their research on the project through a summer workshop.
