Conway Cemetery Historic State Park

This 11.5-acre state park preserves a historic cemetery with graves dating to the early settlement of central Arkansas. A large tree near the cemetery has a dark history.

Conway Cemetery Historic State Park occupies 11.5 acres in Bradley County in southern Arkansas, approximately three miles south of the town of Bradley on Arkansas Highway 160. The cemetery is the family burial ground of James Sevier Conway, who in 1836 became the first governor of the state of Arkansas. Conway was born in Greene County, Tennessee, in 1796, descended from a prominent political family — his brothers Elias Nelson Conway and Henry Wharton Conway also served in Arkansas politics, with Elias becoming the state's fifth governor. James Sevier Conway moved to Arkansas Territory in 1820, established a cotton plantation called Walnut Hill near the Red River, and was elected governor when Arkansas achieved statehood on June 15, 1836. He served a single four-year term and retired to his plantation, where he died on March 3, 1855. He is buried in this cemetery alongside members of his family and household.

The cemetery contains approximately forty-six marked graves, the oldest dating to 1845. The burials span from the antebellum period through the early twentieth century and include members of the Conway family, their associates, and individuals connected to the surrounding plantation community. The site was designated a state park in 1927, making it one of the oldest units in the Arkansas state park system. A wrought-iron fence encloses the main burial area, and the grounds are shaded by large hardwood trees that create deep shadows even in daylight.

The most persistent legend associated with Conway Cemetery involves a large tree near the cemetery's edge that locals refer to as the "hanging tree." According to accounts passed down through generations in Bradley County, the tree was used for executions during or after the Civil War — either by Confederate authorities punishing deserters or by vigilante groups enforcing rough justice in the chaotic postwar period. The specific identities of those allegedly hanged from the tree have been lost, but the legend holds that their spirits remain bound to the site.

Visitors to the cemetery have reported hearing voices when no one else is present, particularly around midnight during a full moon — a detail that recurs across multiple independent accounts. The voices are described as low murmuring, as though several people were engaged in conversation just out of sight among the headstones. Others have reported the sound of footsteps on the gravel paths when the cemetery is empty, and an oppressive feeling of being watched that intensifies near the hanging tree. Some visitors have described cold spots that move through the grounds even on warm summer nights, passing through them like a wave.

The cemetery's isolation contributes to its eerie atmosphere. Located on a rural highway with no nearby structures or streetlights, the site after dark is profoundly quiet, with the only sounds being wind through the hardwoods and the occasional call of night birds. The state park maintains the grounds but does not staff the site, and visitors are free to walk the cemetery during daylight hours. Conway Cemetery is included on lists of haunted places in Arkansas, though it receives far less attention than the state's more famous haunted sites. Its significance lies as much in its connection to Arkansas's founding as in its ghostly reputation — a place where the state's political origins and its unquiet dead share the same ground.