Bonaventure Cemetery

Three documented reasons. It sits on a bluff above the Wilmington River under live oaks, on the site of the old Bonaventure Plantation. John Muir slept among its tombs for five days in October 1867, with no money for a room, and wrote a chapter about it. And the cover photograph of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" was taken here in 1993. That statue, the Bird Girl, has been at Telfair Museums since 1997, so you won't find it here.

The two most visited are the songwriter Johnny Mercer, in the family plot at Section H, Lot 48, and Gracie Watson, the six-year-old daughter of a hotel manager, whose statue stands over her grave in the same section. The poet Conrad Aiken is nearby under a marble bench beside his parents' graves, cut with two lines: "Give my love to the world" and "Cosmos Mariner, Destination Unknown." Start in Section H and you'll see all three without a hunt.

No. Sylvia Shaw Judson made the statue in 1936 as a garden ornament, and Lucy Boyd Trosdal bought one of the six castings for her family plot around 1938. After the book made it a target, the Trosdal family removed it in 1997 and lent it to Telfair Museums, which has shown it at the Telfair Academy, then the Jepson Center, and now the Academy again at 121 Barnard Street. Check which building it's in on the day you go.

Yes, if you give it an hour or two and a route. Entry and parking are free, the city map shows the sections, and the Bonaventure Historical Society runs a free guided walk on the second weekend of each month. It isn't worth squeezing between two downtown reservations: it's three miles east, it needs a car, a ride or a tour, and the gates close at 5.

Nothing. There's no admission charge and parking is free. The Historical Society's second-weekend walk is free as well, though it now needs a ticket. The only things that cost money are the private walking and cart tours, which buy you a guide, a vehicle or the ride from downtown. The city's section map is a free download.

The gates are open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, and staying after hours is trespassing unless the city has issued a permit for an approved activity. The cemetery office in the administrative building at the entrance keeps 8 to 5 on weekdays except city holidays, and the Historical Society's visitor center at the gate opens 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.

By car, ride or tour; it's about three miles east of the Historic District at 330 Bonaventure Road. Some guided tours include the transfer from downtown, and the combination tour with Wormsloe takes care of both outlying drives in one booking. If you drive, park in the large lot by the river at the end of Mullryne Way.

No. The City of Savannah bars tours marketed as haunted or paranormal from all of its cemeteries, the gates close at 5 p.m., and after-hours access exists only by city permit for approved activities, never between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. A ghost tour that mentions Bonaventure will tell its stories somewhere else. The daytime walking and cart tours that come here are history tours.

Yes. The Bonaventure Historical Society leads a free walk of about an hour at 2 p.m. on the Saturday and Sunday of the second weekend of each month; some months list a Saturday only. As of 2026 you need a free ticket, and the society can change or cancel a date without notice, so book from its live schedule. The walk starts at the Colonial Garden, a quarter mile inside the gate at Mullryne Way and Wiltberger Way. Follow the blue signs.

No. Jim Williams is buried in the Ramah Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery near Gordon, Georgia. The book's setting is still here; the Bird Girl left in 1997, and you'll find it at the Telfair Academy downtown.

Partly. The roads are drivable and the cart tours ride them, but most of the paths between the plots are dirt and gravel and can be hard to manage in a wheelchair. The restrooms are at the entry gates only. If mobility is the constraint, book the golf-cart tour and confirm how you board with the operator before you pay.

Yes, for personal use, from the pathways. Commercial filming or photography needs a city permit applied for at least a week ahead. The Bird Girl is no longer in the Trosdal plot, so that photograph can't be taken here; the statue has been at Telfair since 1997.