Historic Potts Family Cemetery
Recently, the ACC staff has been repairing and restoring the gravestones in the historic Potts family cemetery located on the southern edge of the Potts Mountain easement. The graves here date back to the first child of landowner Young Potts who died as an infant in 1843. Potts initially purchased 160 acres of this area, called Wolfscratch in 1836, later adding additional acres aimed at preventing others from moving too close to his homestead. On December 6, 1856 Young Potts died and was buried in the family plot.
Conservation Cemetery
Potts Mountain Burial Ground will be a green cemetery on perpetually conserved land. It will help conserve natural resources, reduce carbon emissions, protect worker health, and in keeping with the ecosystem services planned here. It helps with restoration and preservation of habitat. There are approximately 85 hardwood packed acres on the mountain under consideration for this cost effective and natural method of burial.
Certified by the Green Burial Council as it demonstrating compliance with their established standards, creating sustainable practices in the funeral industry, and preserving and stewarding the land through burial.
Ecosystem Service Benefits:
- Potts Mountain Burial Grounds is a natural and wild space with shady forests, creeks and many species of wildlife that call this place home.
- The burial area is hallowed ground that is protected forever by conservation easement.
- Green burial limits one’s impact on the environment and is a cost savings for the family.
- Open to all people, regardless of race, creed, color, gender, religious beliefs, or political affiliation.
Green Burial
The conservation cemetery ecosystem service project involves green burials. An alternative to traditional contemporary interment which leeches chemicals into the ground, green burial is a way of caring for the dead with minimal environmental impact. Natural or green burial is the way our ancestors buried their dead. With a green burial: there can be no embalming, no vaults, and all burial containers or shrouds must be biodegradable. There will be no headstones, rather each burial site will be marked with Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates.
Local Impact
All burial materials including biodegradable wood, wicker or bamboo caskets, and funeral shrouds will be manufactured locally here in Pickens County, further reducing the carbon footprint involved with interment.