Standing inside the grassy, rectangular lot enclosed by a chain-link fence, Raleigh Worsham remarked that it looked a lot different than a year ago.
He's right. The site had been cleared of trees, vines and briars, although it was still rough.
Go back two years or so and it really looks different now.
"It was a jungle. You couldn't walk through here," Worsham said the day before Thanksgiving.
The site, located next to the office for Henderson Apartments off of Lola Avenue in Altavista, is a cemetery. Over the years, it's been known as Rabbit Hollow Cemetery.
Several tombstones of different shapes and sizes indicate members of the Goad, Keesee, Church, Kreger, Reynolds, Bennett, Adams and Wilkes families are buried there.
Some of Worsham's family members, including his grandfather, Thomas Worsham, are also buried there.
Last fall, Worsham, who's 88, hired a crew to clear the site, cut down trees and make it passable.
This year, he had someone grind the stumps and plant grass. He had the site surveyed and a plat drawn. Using radar, he located all 62 of the unknown graves. On each, there's a concrete block with a brass plate that has a number and says "Unknown Grave."
"I did it for my grandfather," he said about the work to restore the cemetery. "He was a good man. My father would have wanted me to do it."
Worsham, who lives in Lynchburg, said he's about finished with the physical work on the site, although he does plan to plant some Leyland cypress trees next spring.
He also plans to try to identify as many of the unknown graves as possible. He said if he can identify who's buried under the unknown marker, he will take the plate off and replace it will one that gives the person's name, birth date and death date.
He said he will maintain the cemetery for the immediate future.
Worsham said as far as he can tell from looking at county records in Rustburg, Clement Memorial Wesleyan Church in Altavista owns the cemetery. He said he couldn't find a deed that indicated the church had sold it.
In an email, Pastor Matt Alford of Clement Memorial wrote that the church doesn't contest whether it owns the property, but just isn't sure if it does. He said it appears "the cemetery came to be known as Clement's property. We have not attempted to do a search to verify ownership."
Alford said he applauded Worsham's work to restore the cemetery.
People were buried in the cemetery as far back as 1918 and as recently as the 1980s.
Worsham discovered the cemetery about three years ago as he and his son were doing some family research.