PHOTOS -- DOCUMENTATION -- HISTORY -- CONTACT
I first found this cemetery when I was 13 years old. I spotted what looked like a gravestone in the middle of the woods. When I took a closer look, I found many, many graves. Almost 16 years later, I came back to take some pictures and document the burial site. This cemetery is located less than a mile away from what used to be the Oxmoor Furnace. I found a sign that indicates the area was once called the Oxmoor Community. It's currently located within Birmingham city limits. The land is owned by U.S. Steel Corporation.
Most of the graves have no markers left. You can see hundreds of sunken graves and only a few (on the top of the hill) have proper markers.
The Oxmoor Cemetery is on 5 and 1/2 acres of land and was established in 1825. This cemetery was in use until 1912 and was the burial site of over 300 residents of Oxmoor including slaves, workers and management of the nearby Oxmoor Furnaces. At the base of the cemetery, the bed of the old Selma to Elyton road can still be seen. In antebellum times, a stagecoach stop was here.
I recently noticed there were many trees cut down inside the graveyard. I talked to a representative from US Steel who advised me that this work was done in an effort to help clean up the cemetery.
The cemetery is now registered on the Alabama Historic Cemetery Register (1 of only 14 in Jefferson County) as well as the Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance Register. I'm currently in the process of establishing an organization for the purpose of purchasing an official historical marker.