The burial ground of the former Ark Plantation dates back to the 1700s and was primarily a cemetery for African Americans who lived at the Ark, though the names of most of those buried there are now unknown. In 1860, 63 slaves were recorded as living at the Ark. Descendants of those buried there continued to use the cemetery until 1952, and Sabe Rutledge, who was born at the Ark in the 1860s, requested burial there and was buried there in 1952. Although town maps reserved two blocks as Ark Cemetery, in 1980 a circuit court judge ruled against those who claimed the property was a cemetery and decreed it free and clear of any claims by the defendants, after which development of the property soon followed. Documented evidence of the site now exists.