Looks like we’ve finally found the second cemetery of old Troupville, the African-American cemetery.

Troupville Cemetery #2, the black cemetery, Inside Valdosta State Prison, Southwest corner, Tower 5

John Horton, retired law enforcement, remembers watching when the state prison was built back in the 1980s.

He says he was told they wanted to build a gymnasium at the southwest corner, where Tower 5 is. But they dug up human bones instead.

So the old cemetery is visible on satellite maps as a quadrangle inside the main fence, with the interior drive path curving inwards to go around it.

Map: context, Troupville Cemetery Number 2 in the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT).

The towers are numbered from Tower 1, which is inside the main gate at the big parking lot on Val Tech Road. They number counterclockwise, north, west, and south to Tower 5, and Tower 6 is on the south side.

You can’t see this cemetery from the Little River, although you can see the prison.

More Valdosta State Prison, 2024-04-07, 30.8558079, -83.3476243

This location roughly matches the even rougher old map.

Map of Troupville, GA adapted from C.S. Morgan, in Ray City History Blog, 9 February 2014, Map of Old Troupville, GA with Notes on the Residents.

Of course that map was a modernized rendering of this hand-drawn sketch map. The sketch map was made by a former resident years after the people of Troupville picked up the town and moved four miles east in 1860 to form Valdosta where the railroad was coming.

Sketch of Old Troupville, GA by C.S. Morgan, in Ray City History Blog, 9 February 2014, Map of Old Troupville, GA with Notes on the Residents.

The main Troupville Cemetery was never lost. It is east of the Withlacoochee River and south of GA 133.

But Troupville Cemetery Number 2 has not been known to the public for a long time. Here is a closer satellite view.

Map: Troupville Cemetery Number 2 in the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail.

Its fence encloses a little more than half an acre.

John Horton has heard that that cemetery is owned by the City of Valdosta.

The Lowndes County Tax Assessors Map shows the entire prison site as owned by the State of Georgia. However, many other cemetery sites in Lowndes County are shown by the Tax Assessors map as No Information, so maybe this one was also misfiled. I will inquire.

Map: Valdosta State Prison in Lowndes County Tax Assessors Map

There should also be a survey map down at the courthouse that shows this cemetery. I was told a few years ago by the person who said he did the survey that the cemetery is on the survey. I will look for the survey plat.

Meanwhile, if you want to visit this cemetery, good luck, but here is where to inquire:
Valdosta State Prison,
P.O. Box 5368, 3259 Val Tech Road, Valdosta, GA 31603.
Fax: (229) 333-5387
Inmate Concerns / Questions: (404) 656-4661
Email form.

Some months back I tried calling that Atlanta number, but they had no idea what I was talking about and no inclination to provide access.

Don’t try to get there from the Little River.

Valdosta State Prison, 2024-04-07, 30.8527247, -83.3469143

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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