State Historic Cemetery Preservation Program Statewide Map and Register Now Available

NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Historical Commission’s (THC) new Statewide Cemetery Map and Tennessee Historic Cemetery Register (TCHR) are now available in ArcGIS format for public use on THC’s Website. The map has been populated by data from the Commission’s cemetery database, which currently contains more than 32,500 cemeteries statewide.

The public map contains various overlays which will enable the viewer to compare a cemetery’s location topographically, geographically, and even historically as Tennessee county borders have often shifted over the decades. THC hopes this map will be a valuable tool for historians, genealogists, developers, landowners, realtors, and state agencies for the purpose of preserving and protecting burial sites.

The Tennessee Historic Cemetery Register is intended to provide the public with a way to extensively document historic cemeteries for the purpose of preservation efforts.

“Not only is the register intended to honor a particular cemetery, but it also provides a way to attract and increase public interest, maintenance, and community involvement,” said Graham Perry, who coordinates the Historic Cemetery Program for the Commission.

Applications to submit a cemetery for the Register are available on the THC website. Submissions that meet an established criteria will be automatically added to the Historic Register. Neither the THCR nor map include prehistoric Native American cemeteries.

For more information about the Tennessee Historical Commission, please visit the website at: http://www.tnhistoricalcommission.org. For more specific information about a particular cemetery shown on the map or about the Tennessee Historic Cemetery Register, contact Graham Perry at (615) 532-0087 or [email protected].

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.