Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery, Cemetery in Huntsville, Texas, United States

Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery is a 22-acre prison cemetery on a hill in Huntsville, Texas, operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Inmates not claimed by families are buried here, with prisoners serving as pallbearers and digging graves. Headstones range from concrete crosses with only prison ID numbers and death dates to markers with names and birth dates; death row graves carry numbers beginning "999" or the letters "EX" or "X".

In the 1850s Texas prison officials accidentally buried prisoners on the wrong plot of land; the owners donated it to the state as a burial ground. Joe Byrd, an assistant warden and state executioner, restored and cleaned the cemetery in the 1960s, and it was named for him. A 2011 study by criminologist Frank Wilson photographed every grave and counted over 3,000, including 30 to 40 veterans.

The nickname Peckerwood Hill comes from "Peckerwood", a slur for poor white people, as many buried here were poor. Joe Byrd, the cemetery's namesake, was the state executioner who oversaw electrocutions at Huntsville and was known for the dignity he gave executed inmates and their families. Inmate pallbearers carry the coffins, chisel names on headstones, and dig graves with shovels and backhoes.

The cemetery sits on a hilltop along Bowers Boulevard, not far from the prison, and is open to visitors. The grounds are well maintained and easy to locate, allowing you to walk through and read the headstones at your own pace.

The nickname Peckerwood Hill comes from "Peckerwood", a slur for poor white people, since many buried here were poor. The cemetery holds the remains of about 2,100 prisoners according to 2012 TDCJ figures, though researcher Franklin T. Wilson counted over 3,000 graves in 2011. Among them is Kiowa war chief Satanta, reburied in Oklahoma in 1963.