Shady Oaks Gardens Cemetery was recently designated as a Polk County Heritage Site, which aids the county in efforts to preserve and promote the cemetery’s history. Shady Oaks Gardens Cemetery is located along Old Homeland Road in Bartow, and it has long served as a peaceful, final resting place for some of Polk County’s indigent population. Shady Oaks Gardens has been known as the county’s primary “pauper” cemetery since 1963, and 862 people are currently buried there. As the name of the 2.8-acre site implies, the graves lie under the shade of oak trees. While there has not been a burial at Shady Oaks Gardens since 2012, there are still hundreds of plots available.