Old Zion Cemetery is located just west of the intersection of Campground Road and Mixon School Road three miles south of the city of Ozark, Dale County, Alabama. No history of the early church and this cemetery can be found, but memories of some descendants of early members have been published in The Heritage of Dale County, Alabama by Dale County Heritage Book Committee, Dale County, Alabama (Heritage of Alabama series, v. 23). Old Zion Cemetery presently belongs to the Saint Mark AME Zion Church located on Liberty Avenue in Ozark.

The church originally belonged to a white congregation, but from the beginning the cemetery was used for burying both whites and blacks who attended the church. After a time, the white members gave the church building to the black members. Even after the original church building was gone and the congregation had relocated its church, burials have continued at the cemetery. The earliest graves were marked with only wooden markers which over time deteriorated leaving many graves completely unmarked and lost. Today the cemetery is very well maintained.

This cemetery land was purchased from the Fields family for the African Methodist Church of the United States of America by church Trustees Daniel Dick and George Matthews 27 June 1874. The cemetery is within the NE¼ of NW ¼ of Sec 16 Township 5 Range 24 which was part of an original land patent from the government conveyed to Alexander Fields 19 December 1843. Fields' acquisition of this parcel of land is recorded in the Lands Tractbook Entries in the Secretary of State's office and may be viewed online. The deed for the sale to the church can be seen at the Dale County Courthouse in Deed Book A, pages 153 and 154. Descendants of Trustee George Matthews are still members of the congregation which he represented in the purchase of the cemetery land in 1874.