William Carlton Rice

William Carlton Rice, was born February 20, 1930 in Bibb County, Alabama. On April 24, 1960, Rice claimed God healed him of an ulcerated stomach. The self-ordained minister, and house painter, set to work to pay tribute to his miraculous recovery. Near his home in Prattville, Alabama, he began his Cross Garden on three acres along Autauga County Road 85.

By the late 1990s, Rice had installed hundreds of white, wooden crosses, all dabbed with red paint. They varied in scale from recycled telephone poles to pencil-thin constructions he suspended in trees with string. In addition to the crosses, the site featured signs and apocalyptic warnings such as “Hell is Hot” and “Sinners Burn in Hell,” often painted on abandoned washing machines, upright refrigerators, rusted tin, old boards, cinder blocks, and wrecked cars.

In addition, Rice built a small, wooden roadside chapel that he also covered with crosses and signs. He regularly welcomed visitors there during the 1980s and 1990s, distributing his own tracts, and praying with believers.

Since Rice’s death in 2004, his family has tended the Cross Garden and it remains accessible to the public.