Atlanta's 48-acre, 1850-founded municipal cemetery — final rest of 70,000 Georgians including Margaret Mitchell and Bobby Jones — routinely topping Georgia's most-haunted lists for Confederate-section apparitions and a Lady in White.
248 Oakland Avenue SE, Atlanta, GA 30312
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free general admission during posted hours; guided and themed tours are ticketed through the Historic Oakland Foundation.
Access
Limited Access
Mixed pavement, brick, and grass paths over 48 acres; sloped sections, uneven historic stonework, and unimproved paths in older quadrants.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1850 · Atlanta's oldest and largest cemetery · Added to National Register of Historic Places April 28, 1976 · Approximately 70,000 burials including Margaret Mitchell, Bobby Jones, Maynard Jackson · Confederate section with approximately 6,900 burials and four generals · Example of mid-19th-century rural cemetery movement design
Oakland Cemetery was established in 1850 as Atlanta Cemetery on six acres of land purchased from A. W. Wooding on the city's southeastern edge. The cemetery expanded in 1857, 1864, 1866, and 1867 as Atlanta grew, eventually reaching its current 48 acres. It was renamed Oakland in 1872 in recognition of the oak and magnolia trees on the grounds. The brick perimeter walls and main gates were constructed in 1896.
The cemetery is designed in the tradition of the mid-19th-century rural cemetery movement, blending English landscape aesthetics with Victorian funerary art. Approximately 70,000 individuals are interred there, including 25 former Atlanta mayors, six Georgia governors, several Confederate generals, golfer Bobby Jones, Gone with the Wind author Margaret Mitchell, and Atlanta's first Black mayor Maynard Jackson. The Confederate section contains an estimated 6,900 burials and is one of the largest Confederate burial sites in the South. The site also contains Potter's Field, with approximately 17,000 mostly unmarked burials, and a Black section reflecting Atlanta's segregated cemetery history.
Oakland was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 28, 1976. A tornado on March 14, 2008 caused significant tree and monument damage in what was the first downtown Atlanta tornado in the city's recorded weather history. Today the cemetery is operated as a public park by the City of Atlanta in partnership with the nonprofit Historic Oakland Foundation, and remains an active burial ground.
Sources
Oakland Cemetery is regularly ranked among the most-haunted places in Georgia by tourism, paranormal, and travel outlets. According to coverage by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (which highlighted Thrillist's naming Oakland the 'creepiest place in Georgia'), Atlanta Ghosts, and Paranormal Traveler, the most-repeated reports involve the cemetery's Confederate section. Witnesses on dusk tours describe figures in tattered uniforms appearing between headstones and the faint sound of muffled weeping. Tour guides associated with Atlanta Ghosts have referenced a soldier nicknamed 'The Captain' near the Confederate obelisk, said to salute gravestones and speak briefly to visitors before fading away.
The so-called 'Lady in White' is the cemetery's other most-cited apparition, described as gliding among prominent 19th-century burial lots. The Atlanta History Center's haunted-history coverage frames Oakland's ghost stories as part of the city's broader memorial culture, noting that the cemetery's age, scale, and connection to mass Civil War death make it a natural focus for paranormal storytelling. Visitor reports during seasonal Capturing the Spirit of Oakland tours include cold spots, the sensation of being watched, and brief auditory phenomena.
These reports are anecdotal and tied to community memory and active ghost-tour interpretation. Editorially, Oakland's haunted reputation cannot be separated from the immense human cost the cemetery represents — Confederate burials, enslaved and freed Black Atlantans, and the indigent in Potter's Field — and visitors are expected to behave as on an active cemetery.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Explore the 48-acre grounds founded in 1850, including the Confederate section with approximately 6,900 burials, the graves of Margaret Mitchell and Bobby Jones, and Victorian-era funerary art reflecting the rural cemetery movement.
Docent-led daytime and seasonal evening tours run by the Historic Oakland Foundation, including the popular fall 'Capturing the Spirit of Oakland' Halloween tours featuring costumed historians at notable graves.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Atlanta, GA
Historic Oakland Cemetery was chartered in 1850 as the six-acre 'Atlanta Cemetery,' renamed Oakland in 1872, and expanded to 48 acres. Approximately 70,000 people are interred, including roughly 6,900 Confederate soldiers (3,000 unidentified), four Confederate generals, six Georgia governors, 27 Atlanta mayors, Margaret Mitchell, golfer Bobby Jones, and Maynard Jackson, Atlanta's first African American mayor. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 28, 1976.
Anchorage, AK
Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery was established as a Cemetery Reserve by President Woodrow Wilson in Executive Order 2242 of August 31, 1915, the same year the federal government laid out the Anchorage townsite. The first recorded burial was Francis Amestoy on July 6, 1915. The Municipality of Anchorage became the managing agency in 1979, and the cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 26, 1993.
St. Louis, MO
Bellefontaine Cemetery was founded in 1849 by the Rural Cemetery Association of St. Louis as a response to rapid urban growth and a cholera epidemic. The 314-acre grounds were modeled on Père Lachaise in Paris and Mount Auburn in Cambridge and now contain 87,000+ interments. The cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is also an accredited arboretum.