The Horry County Cemetery Project

About the Program

Category: Arts, Culture and Historic Preservation (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

The Horry County Cemetery Project Horry County, SC Population: 226,992 The Horry County Cemetery Project is Horry County’s attempt to inventory, map, and preserve every gravesite in every historic cemetery in the County, even those that may have been lost for decades. This project was established after a local man’s family cemetery was found and restored and listed as a Horry County Historic Property. The goal of the project is to protect historic properties at the local level, protect historic properties from encroachment and growth pressures, create greater interest in historic preservations and create the necessary framework for local level protection. In the midst of the project, it was found that a large majority of Horry County history, namely African-Americans, was missing. In the 1980’s and 1990’s inventory of Horry county cemeteries, only 8 of the 236 graves found were of African-Americans. The Horry County Cemetery Project worked to remedy this mishap in Horry County history. The Cemetery Project began in 2007 initiated by the Board of Architectural Review and Historic Preservation. For each one of the graves found of the almost 500 cemeteries, information regarding the grave is recorded including the gravesite, name of the interred, birth and death date, their lineage described, the epitaph, any symbols and the condition of the grave. Then, the grave is photographed and digitally mapped using Trimble GeoXT GIS mapping. This information is then displayed in a public register allowing the county citizens to view. The project has been completely successful, inventorying over 200 cemeteries and mapping more than 13,000 gravesites. These have all been uploaded for public viewing. Of those 200, 132 have been officially preserved on the Horry County Historic Property Register. Over 1,000 lost or unmarked graves have been relocated and permanently identified. The community has highly supported this program, writing several articles, broadcasting television news cast and shows, all resulting in an influx of requests from volunteer services from the local community.