Stoney Lonesome Cemetery
GPS Coordinates: 38.7002942, -77.2589880
Closest Address: 9600 Ox Road, Lorton, VA 22079

Here follows an excerpt from the Atlas Obscura website:
Stoney Lonesome Cemetery
Lorton, Virginia
A small, forgotten prison cemetery marked only by a wrought-iron fence and eerie depressions left in the ground.
This old cemetery sits tucked away behind a black wrought-iron fence in a grove of cedar trees across from the former workhouse prison complex.
With the establishment of the Lorton Reformatory (also known as the Lorton/D.C. Workhouse Prison Complex) in 1910, a small patch of land was set aside for the burial of male and female inmates who died while imprisoned at the complex and had no friends or next-of-kin to oversee a proper burial. Some of the earliest burials are believed to be men who succumbed to disease, fatal injuries, drowning (those who worked at the brick kilns located near the dock area), and even the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918.
The graves were typically hand-dug in a day and laid out in north-south rows. The digging was usually done by a single inmate or another trusted patron of the prison. The inmates were buried in coffins that were merely a pine box that had been fashioned within the prison’s carpenter shop. Burial ceremonies were attended by fellow incarcerated friends and overseen by a local clergyman, while later burials would be led by the prison’s personal chaplain.
It is estimated that somewhere between 50 to 100 inmates are buried beneath the small plot of land, with the last burial taking place sometime in the 1960s. All records regarding the prisoners who were laid to rest there have long been lost, and today all that remains on the site is a black wrought-iron fence surrounding the area, a small pile of bricks, depressions in the ground, and a few cement slabs.
Know Before You Go
The cemetery is on the grounds of Fairfax County Water Authority. If you plan to visit, Fairfax Water notes:
"Fairfax Water is responsible for the continued maintenance of the small, Stoney Lonesome Cemetery. This includes periodic mowing, tree maintenance, and as-needed fence repair. Respectful, non-invasive visits during normal business hours Monday-Friday 8:00 am-4:30 pm are fine and will not require a Fairfax Water escort. The site is alternatively patrolled by Fairfax Water security and Fairfax County Police. As such, please contact Fairfax Water with your expected time of arrival and your departure so that we can alert security.
Please note that there are no signs, placards, or other information at the site. Check the Workhouse Museum for information. Please be careful and watch your step as tree roots, markers, and soil settling make for uneven footing.
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Here follows an excerpt from the Clio Foundation website as written by Genna Duplisea:
Introduction
After the establishment of the Occoquan Workhouse Prison in 1910, management set aside land for the burial of inmates. This "potter's field" was built around 1920 and became the final resting place for inmates who died in prison and whose bodies were unclaimed. The deceased were buried in simple pine coffins constructed in the prison's carpentry shop. Most of the graves are unmarked or have very simple concrete markers. The last burials most likely took place in the 1960s, though the prison operated in some capacity until 2001. No records are extant of the number of burials or identities of those buried here and historians estimate that the number of people buried here is probably between 50 and 100 individuals.
Backstory and Context
The original prison was established in Lorton in 1910. Several names were applied to this facility, officially called District of Columbia Workhouse and Reformatory, including Lorton Prison and District of Columbia Correctional Facility. It was a minimum-security prison originally, though later a maximum-security facility and juvenile detention facility also developed on the complex. Another part of the facility was the Occoquan Workhouse, which violently detained suffragists in 1917. The Workhouse Arts Center/Workhouse Prison Museum that now exists on the site depicts this history.
Disease, such as the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, and workplace accidents occasionally felled inmates during their incarceration. Prisoners who died while incarcerated were not automatically buried in the Stoney Lonesome cemetery, only those whose relatives did not claim them. Fellow inmates attended funerals, which were overseen by local clergy or the prison's chaplain. Graves were dug by hand, usually by an inmate, and the coffins were pine boxes built in the prison's carpentry shop.
The cemetery is situated just north of the defunct prison complex along what is now an access road owned by the Fairfax Water Authority. It stands in a grove of cedar trees and is surrounded by a wrought-iron fence. Burials were laid out in north-south rows each containing 10-14 burials, and are discernible as depressions in the ground. A few rough grave markers are in place, but they do not contain identifying information on those individuals buried here.
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Here follows an excerpt from the Fairfax Genealogical Society website:
STONEY LONESOME CEMETERY
Just west of Ox Road (Route 123), on the fringe of Lorton Reformatory
Lorton, Virginia USA
Original Information from Volume 5 of the Gravestone Books
Stoney Lonesome Cemetery is located in a stand of trees on a small hill just west of Ox Road (Route 123), on the fringe of Lorton Reformatory. The cemetery lies along the southern edge of a small dirt road which leads from Ox Road to a large pond on the reformatory grounds. The dirt road may be accessed just north of the intersection of Ox and Lorton Roads.
The cemetery was surveyed in 1994 and 1998. The 1994 surveyor estimated the size of the cemetery as about 100 feet by 30 feet and noted rows of graves in a north-south alignment. The surveyor estimated that each row contains ten to fourteen burials and that the cemetery may contain between 50 to 100 burials. No grave markers were visible in the overgrown cemetery.
At the time of the 1998 survey, surveyors found the cemetery had recently been cleared of growth. Several small trees had been cut down. The area was clean and neat and a new hand-lettered wooden sign identified the spot as “Stoney Lonesome Cemetary” (sic). Several old cedar trees still stand around the perimeter of the cemetery, screening the graves from the adjacent field which has been graded to a different elevation.
In 1998, several concrete grave markers were noted. One grave was marked with a brick and more bricks were stacked on the edge of the cemetery. At least two concrete grave markers bore the name “Vandyke” and at least two markers were inscribed “Star12,” but it appears that these words and numbers identify the manufacturers of the markers rather than those buried at the site.
According to a note in the cemetery file in the Virginia Room, Fairfax City Regional Library, Ames Funeral Home has reported burials of unclaimed bodies, possibly from the reformatory, in this cemetery into the 1960s.
No Updates from Volume 6 of the Gravestone Books