Tree Rustlers Steal Timber, Damage Graves At Historic Slave Cemetery

“I’ll never accept timber theft or desecration or destruction of property … because these sites hidden all over the country represent who we are,” says Robert Wright.
“I’ll never accept timber theft or desecration or destruction of property … because these sites hidden all over the country represent who we are,” says Robert Wright.
(Photo by Sidestep Adventures)

Sold: Integrity for the price of 12 cedars and a single oak.

When tree rustlers cut and stole prime timber from a slave cemetery in rural Georgia, they desecrated headstones, damaged gravesites, and permanently removed 200 years of canopy growth, ensuring an explosion of underbrush and further ruin.

“It’s worse than shameful,” says Robert Wright. “It’s a total lack of concern for someone’s life and it’s just like erasing history.”

Disregard for monuments and memorials is common currency, spotlighted in the disturbance of the Antebellum cemetery.

Wright, who discovered the timber theft in 2023, set up game cameras to catch the thieves: “I knew their greed would bring them back for more.”

Destruction for Dollars

On a bright morning in October 2023, Cecil Young eased down red dirt in Talbot County, Georgia, searching a vast pineland for a burial ground—the half-acre Mahone Cemetery, final resting place from roughly 1830 to 1960 for the Mahone and Ingram families, with most of the graves capped by unmarked fieldstones or rough rocks. Over 300 people were interred at the African American cemetery, many of them slaves or former slaves associated with the nearby Mahone Plantation.

Perched on land owned by a major U.S. timber company, the site is distinguished from surrounding ground by red crosses painted on perimeter pines. Protected for almost two centuries by a shading canopy above old-growth timber, Mahone Cemetery’s floor was tidied by nature—remarkably clean and relatively free of scrub, vines, and briars. No more.

 

ROBERT WRIGHT GRAVESTONE MTA
Robert Wright, foreground, and Cecil Young survey grave damage and timber debris at Mahone Cemetery. “This was not their first cemetery to hit; I’m certain they’d done this before,” says Young. (Photo by Sidestep Adventures)

 

Crawling along the backroad, intent on photographing and recording GPS coordinates for the site, Young searched for any sign of a break in the pines. Instead of gravestones, he eyeballed a dark-blue F-150 parked on the shoulder, its bed packed and stacked with cedar logs. The driver stood outside the early-2000s-model vehicle, and no passengers were visible.

Young rolled down his window, stopped beside the truck, and tossed the driver a question: “Do you know where a cemetery is around here?”

Instantly, the driver dropped his head, climbed into the F-150, and was gone. “He was a white guy wearing a ball cap, and maybe in his early 30s,” Young notes. “I didn’t think nothing about it. I kept going.”

Roughly 100 yards later, Young spotted Mahone Cemetery and drove up to a crime scene. “I could see big cedar stumps everywhere, paths where the logs had been dragged out, and clear evidence of someone making cedar slabs right there in the cemetery. My anger was building, and I knew right away the fella in the truck was involved—and he was by no means the only one.”

 

CEDAR SLABS
Scott Curry, a retired U.S. Marine and associate of Sidestep Adventures, inspects cedar slab production among the fieldstone-marked graves. (Photo by Sidestep Adventures)

 

“I immediately called the man who told me about the cemetery to begin with—Robert Wright.”

Wright is a maverick explorer and creator of Sidestep Adventures, a rollicking YouTube channel chronicling cemeteries, old homes, artifacts, farmland, and anything lost in the cracks of time. Steadily locating historical sites, Wright uncovers a stream of graves and homesteads near the brink of disappearance.

Arriving at Mahone Cemetery, Wright was appalled.

“Ruin and vandalism,” he describes. “Headstones and footstones knocked over; destruction of markers for people who never had much of a marker to begin with; graves under crashed trees; drag marks of logs clear to the road; old, thick-trunk trees cut down; and a canopy partially gone.”

“And why? Tree poachers chasing a dollar.”

Bad to Worse

Red cedar trees are often cemetery sentinels. Once planted in graveyards as evergreen symbols of eternal life, Mahone Cemetery held a cluster of cedars.

 

CEDAR STUMP THEFT
Planted in graveyards as evergreen symbols of eternal life, Mahone Cemetery held a cluster of cedars until thieves struck. (Photo by Sidestep Adventures)

 

“A cemetery is not just headstones,” Wright says. “We’re talking about uncut and untouched trees growing since pre-Civil War times. These thieves cut down at least a dozen huge cedars and were brazen enough to cut slabs right there among the graves. These were big cedars, some several feet in diameter, and likely planted by the families of the deceased toward the beginning stages of Mahone Cemetery.”

“Most of the gravesites are unmarked fieldstones, but there are also some notable ones, such as a MTA (Mosaic Templars of America) headstone that is very unique and special. The last burial appears to have been in the 1950s. Somebody’s life, somebody’s loved ones, and somebody’s story.”

After filing a police report and alerting the timber company, Wright photographed the damage, removed debris, reinserted fallen headstones, put rock markers back in place, cut limb debris—and set up game cameras, intent on catching the thieves.

“There were still prime trees to cut and steal, so I figured they’d probably come back,” Wright recalls. “But I didn’t know things would go from bad to worse.”

Pulling the Anchor

Month after month, the game cameras showed no activity, and the cemetery was quiet.

“We were going by and checking the cemetery to make sure it was OK,” Young says. “We checked the trail cams for several months and saw nothing—and then Robert called. They’d done it again.”

In February 2024, roughly six months after the first theft and damage incident, Mahone Cemetery once more was hit by thieves. “I drove out there, rounded the corner, and knew something was wrong,” Wright says. “This time it was far, far worse. They cut down the central pillar of the whole cemetery—the anchor. They toppled a massive oak that was a monument all by itself.”

 

ROBERT WRIGHT NARRATES
Wright points to the toppled oak—once the central pillar of Mahone Cemetery. (Photo by Sidestep Adventures)

 

“This oak had to be at least 200 years old and had its own story to tell. It was hollow at the base, but still very much clinging to life,” Wright adds. “They must have used some big equipment because the trunk was almost as wide as my truck hood.”

“No doubt they had several people,” Young concurs. “The oak sections were cut in 4’-6’ lengths and I’d estimate the trunk was 4’ at its widest. This was not their first cemetery to hit; I’m certain they’d done this before.”

Wash. Rinse. Repeat. The oak cuts were winched through the cemetery grounds to the roadside, knocking aside the stones of the nameless, as if a giant bowling ball rolled through the cemetery’s middle.

 

ROBERT WRIGHT TREE THEFT
Wright atop the central oak stump: “It’s worse than shameful,” says Robert Wright. “It’s a total lack of concern for someone’s life and it’s just like erasing history.” (Photo by Sidestep Adventures)

 

Insult to injury, the game cameras were out of battery power—no photos.

And of heavy consequence, the central canopy was gone. “There was very, very little growing under this old-growth timber, but now this cemetery will fill up with brush and low-growth vegetation,” Young explains.

“I was angry the first time they did it,” Wright says. “But the second time makes me sick. The center tree was the showpiece and was probably planted along with the very first bodies. This place should have been left alone.”

Bathe in Sunshine

Tree rustling from cemeteries has long been open season for thieves.

Wide cedar stumps are a common sight in the cemeteries discovered by Wright. “Seventy years back and more, poaching cemeteries trees was widespread,” he details. “Graveyards offered prime, untouched lumber. For example, there’s a cemetery three miles from my farm on a rocky hillside, surrounded by a stone wall, but filled with stumps. It’s documented when and who cut them.”

 

CECIL YOUNG AND DAN AKIN
Cecil Young, right, and Dan Akin document an abandoned cemetery deep in the Georgia woods. Akin is a gumshoe historian with a wealth of knowledge about forgotten figures in Talbot and Harris counties. (Photo by Sidestep Adventures)

 

“Again, 70 years ago, it wasn’t unusual for professional loggers to roll across a country cemetery, or farmers to ignore a cluster of graves,” Wright continues. “Many people did it back then, but to still see it now is revolting.”

What is the best means of preservation? Awareness and individual responsibility, Young urges: “People have to realize there’s a vast number of these forgotten cemeteries out there in rural areas, or even inside towns, no matter what state you’re in. There are an incredible number of lone burials recorded in local history books or courthouse deeds. That’s why we find and record these sites, and then let the county know. Real loggers are the biggest help in cemetery preservation because they show us many places that we’d never know about otherwise.”

For the past two years, Young has documented abandoned and lost cemeteries, authoring two books on graveyards in Marion and Schley counties, with a third on Talbot County in progress. “I do it for the history,” he says. “It’s important for all of us to know where we come from.”

In many cases, historical awareness begins only after vandalism, Wright echoes. “It’s incumbent on everyone to show concern before—not after—destruction of property. Just in my two-county area of Harris and Talbot, there are countless sites in the woods or on the edges of farmland. It’s impossible to make a regular check, but it’s not impossible to record and make a community aware.”

 

ROBERT WRIGHT SEARCHING
Robert Wright is the creator of Sidestep Adventures, a YouTube channel chronicling cemeteries, old homes, artifacts, and farmland mysteries. (Photo by Sidestep Adventures)

 

Via his channel, Sidestep Adventures, Wright is inundated with leads and tips related to rural secrets long covered by dirt or trees. “Literally, some of these are miles off the road and there’s no way to track down all of them. There are so many because no matter where you stand in the middle of nowhere, human life was there prior. It was farm life and domestic life and commerce and it was bustling. I’m talking about so many burials and farmhouses that I’ll only be able to find a small fraction in my life—still gonna try.”

“I’ll never accept timber theft or desecration or destruction of property on any of the locations I come across because these sites hidden all over the country represent who we are,” Wright continues.

His concerns already are taking physical form. At Mahone Cemetery, only six months after the initial scarring of the canopy, the ground is going green: Baby pines poke through the floor and bathe in sunshine.

“They’re coming fast,” Wright adds. “Have you ever walked through a planted pine forest when they’re small? They take over. After 200 years, this spot is about to change.”

For more from Chris Bennett (cbennett@farmjournal.com or 662-592-1106), see:

American Gothic: Farm Couple Nailed In Massive $9M Crop Insurance Fraud

Priceless Pistol Found After Decades Lost in Farmhouse Attic

Cottonmouth Farmer: The Insane Tale of a Buck-Wild Scheme to Corner the Snake Venom Market

Tractorcade: How an Epic Convoy and Legendary Farmer Army Shook Washington, D.C.

Bizarre Mystery of Mummified Coon Dog Solved After 40 Years

While America Slept, China Stole the Farm

Tags

 

Latest News

Skills Survey Reveals U.S. Agriculture & Food Industry Workforce Needs and Gaps
Skills Survey Reveals U.S. Agriculture & Food Industry Workforce Needs and Gaps

U.S. employers report challenges in finding suitable job candidates with work-ready skills to fill open roles in ag. The AgCareers.com U.S. Skills Survey offers insights, data and trends to address skill development.

USDA Authorizes CRP Graze and Hay Donations to Wildfire Victims
USDA Authorizes CRP Graze and Hay Donations to Wildfire Victims

Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) participants can donate emergency grazing authority to ranchers in Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas impacted by recent wildfires.

New Guide Helps Producers Maximize Values of Cull Cows
New Guide Helps Producers Maximize Values of Cull Cows

A new resource developed by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and CattleFax helps cattle producers maximize profitability from their culling decisions.

How Ranchers can Feel More Energized and Reduce their Aches and Pains
How Ranchers can Feel More Energized and Reduce their Aches and Pains

We can’t care for our livestock, resources and families without caring for ourselves first. That seems even harder during the busy seasons, but it isn’t impossible and even one thing a day makes a difference.

Profit Tracker: Packer/Feeder Margin Spread Grows
Profit Tracker: Packer/Feeder Margin Spread Grows

Last week’s rally to new record prices pushed packer and feeder margins in opposite directions. Pork producer margins continue higher with prices now above year ago.

Spring Forward Horse Health with Vaccinations
Spring Forward Horse Health with Vaccinations

As horses are exposed to the environment, wildlife and mosquitoes that transmit the five core equine diseases, it’s important to follow the core equine disease vaccination protocol.