GCCC-New History on Hollywood
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(micro)
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I have finally made the difficult decision to replace the original History on Hollywood cache that was near here for 6 years. There sere several reasons for this. The primary one being that it provided a new cache for the local cachers, while still bringing new visitors to this interesting cemetery.
I hope that you enjoy the cache and the history of caching in the cemetery.
My original cache near here was the first cemetery cache in Hot Springs and maybe in Garland County. I had found caches in cemeteries in other states and decided we needed one in Hot Springs. I approached the cemetery manager with the request and copies of other cache web pages and had to wait almost a month before the Board of Directors decided to give it a try. I had stressed the added security of having more people visit the cemetery. Several months later I returned with copies of the logs of the first 20 or so cachers. The Board was so impressed that I was called and given permission to hide caches in all 22 of their cemeteries scattered in 3 or 4 counties! While I did not do that, I believe that other cachers have now placed caches in all of them.
One of the requirements for the original cache was that a copy of the History of Hollywood Cemetery that they provided be maintained in the cache. Since this new cache is too small for that the following is a copy of that history:
HOLLYWOOD CEMETERY GENERAL. INFORMATION
Date of origin: Unknown (possibly mid 1800’s)
Acreage: 40+/- acres Number of interments: Unknown
Hollywood Cemetery was acquired by Selected Financial Properties from Ray Smith in 1988. The cemetery was in a horritic state of disrepair when Selected acquired it. The entire cemetery, except for isolated areas, was totally overgrown with vines, shrubs, privet hedge and poison ivy. There was an old house sitting at the corner of Mote and Hollywood St. which was burned and removed shortly after Selected acquit the cemetery. The entire cemetery was burned off at one point to eliminate some of the underbrush. A crew of laborers was hired to use saws, axes, grubbing hoes etc. to remove more brush, stumps and debris. A dozer was then brought in to level piles of dirt, clear the roads and generally cleans up some of the areas without head stones. By 1990 the cemetery was a little more manageable. However, only app. 20% of it could be mowed at that time and the rest had to he cut with weed trimmers. In l99l, Teen Challenge of Arkansas was hired to do the mowing and trimming while we continued cleaning and clearing. Broken coping and concrete caps were removed by the truck loads. Many trees and much brush were removed and ravines were cleaned of household garbage and appliances. Fill dirt was trucked in to fill ravines and low spots. Culverts were cleaned out to allow water to flow through them. Road base was hauled in to repair the roads and signage was placed identify the cemetery as a Historic Cemetery. Regulations for placing flowers and decorations were posted at the entrances. A flag pole was erected at the corner of Hollywood and Shady Grove road and the Daughters of the Confederacy (Colonial Dames) held a ceremony and placed a plaque on the block wall near the flag pole.
The clean-up has been gradual and continual since acquiring the cemetery. But, even though there is still much to be done, the transformation from then until now (2005) is quite dramatic. Teen Challenge still mows the cemetery, however, app. 60% can now be mowed and only 40% must be cut with a weed eater. This number will probably not change much more, due to all of the caps and coping throughout the cemetery. The south half of the property owned by Hollywood was in timber and underbrush and only a small portion of it had ever been used for interments when acquired by Selected. There were a few headstones visible at the corner of’ Shady Grove Rd. and Mote St. However, no one seemed to know very much about that area and the records were very sketchy at best. Selected did nothing with that area of the cemetery until 1998. At that time, the board of directors decided to develop more property on that side of the cemetery for interments. I, (Von Pate), walked the entire property to determine what was actually there. I found a few more head stones in the woods, but discovered that there were many unmarked graves. It was easily apparent what area had been used for increments from the sunken graves. This area covered approximately 3 acres. After walking the rest of the property extensively, no other graves could be located.
An excavation company (Keenom Excavating), was contracted to clear the entire south half of the cemetery. I met with Don Keenom and we once again walked the entire property to get an idea what we were dealing with. We flagged the 3 acre area with the graves, leaving a wide buffer beyond the last row of graves before the clearing began. The first step was to bring in a logging company to remove the timber. They were instructed to remove all timber except oaks, maples, cherries, dogwoods and redbuds. To our chagrin, there were very few of these types of trees, so we had to leave hickory trees just to have any trees left on the property at all. After the logging was complete, track hoes and dozers were brought in to finish the clearing. Both the logging crew and the excavating crew were instructed to keep their equipment off of the 3 acres of graves in the corner of the property - Within a few days, the entire 20 or so acres were stripped to the ground, the underbrush piled and burned and the ground leveled and raked for grass seeding. However, since the property was so steep, with all of the trees and underbrush removed, the erosion began! Each time a big rain came, the city had to clean the dirt off of Shady Grove Road where it washed from the cemetery property. Debris fences were installed and bar ditches were cleaned out. Even water bars were built on the side of the hill where we had pushed out for a road. Finally, after many hours of work and hundreds of pounds of grass seed and fertilizer were sowed, most of the erosion was brought under control. The road area was finally determined to be too steep for a cemetery road and still has the water bars across it to control the erosion. A road was built on the other end of the cemetery, with access from Mote St., and it is currently being used as the main cemetery entrance.
After the excavation company finished their part of the clearing project, Teen challenge was hired to hand clear the 3 acre corner with the graves on it. They cut down the trees for firewood, and cut, piled and burned the tree tops and underbrush. A stump grinder was then brought in to grind the stumps down to ground level. All of the monuments and graves in this area became visible at that point, so we brought in a tractor to till all of the sunken graves. After leveling the area, ryegrass, fescue and bermuda grass seed, along with fertilizer. was sown on the entire area. We can now mow or brush hog the entire 20 acres and do so regularly. Shortly after the property was cleared, we began establishing New Hollywood Cemetery. We had a road built and paved and curbed from Mote St. down the ridge of the newly cleared area. A circle was built for a turn around a few hundred feet from the entrance. A block wall was built at the entrance with caps and halls decorating the corners. Large black HOLLYWOOD CEMETERY letters were attached to the lace of the wall. Lots and spaces were laid off and plated and a plot map drawn of the new area. Shortly after that spaces began to be sold and burials soon followed. Plans for a large chapel mausoleum were kicked around for some time, but the cost and uncertainty of whether; it would sell postponed those plans indefinitely.
In 2001. Gail Ashbrook, with the Garland County Historical Society, began compiling a book on Hollywood Cemetery. She spent many hours over a several month period going from grave to grave in the cemetery writing down the names from the monuments. Even though this had been done many years prior by Inez Cline, there had been many graves and monuments added and many mistakes were found in the original publication. Ms. Ashbrook did a superb job of comparing old records to what she actually found in the cemetery to compile a much more accurate list of interments. She also included in her book of interments: tombstone inscriptions, a brief history of the cemetery, a running account of her tombstone inventory (titled: Grave Concern), and maps of the entire cemetery. Her inventory and research will be of immeasurable value for many years to both the owners/operators of the cemetery and anyone wishing to locate the grave of a loved one buried there. Copies of the Tombstone Inscriptions and an overview of Gail’s work in the cemetery can be found at the Hot Springs Historical Society.
Although there is much more work to be done, Hollywood cemetery is in better condition now than it has been for many years. No more major projects are being done, just day today clean up and restoration. We still remove broken concrete copings and grave caps as they deteriorate and we are still trying to get grass to grow in some stubborn areas. The New Hollywood area is coming along well with several grave spaces sold and several memorials and monuments in place. Hopefully. we can eventually add mausoleums and lawn crypts to the cemetery to give customers more choice in their arrangements. But overall the restoration and expansion project has been a great success. Not only has it opened up another perpetual care cemetery in Hot Springs that residents can be proud to put their loved ones in, but it has rid the city and neighborhood of an eye sore. We have been thanked many times by cemetery neighbors and long time residents of Hot Springs who saw the cemetery go from a very nice cemetery long ago, to a tangled jungle of vines and bushes and broken monuments, and back to the well maintained perpetual care cemetery that it is today.
[Information provided by Von N Pate of Selected Financial Properties Inc., Jan 2006]
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