In 1997, a cemetery restoration began here that triggered a movement to memorialize patients buried at state psychiatric hospitals nationwide. After discovering that nearby neglected cemeteries held some 25,000 people, members of the Georgia Consumer Council pledged to restore the burial grounds and build a memorial. A grassroots campaign raised funds to erect the adjacent gate and display 2,000 numbered iron markers that had been displaced from graves over the years. A life-size bronze angel was placed 175 yards south of here to serve as a perpetual guardian.