It is a popular tourist attraction and colloquially referred to as the "Arlington of Texas" because of the renown of those interred and proximity to the seat of government.

There is room for 7,500 interments; the cemetery is about half full, after including plots chosen by people who are eligible for burial.

Currently, all persons to be buried in the cemetery must be one of the following:[2] After the death of Edward Burleson in 1851, the Texas Legislature arranged for his burial on land formerly belonging to Andrew Jackson Hamilton.

The burial ground was virtually ignored until the Civil War, when Texas Confederate officers killed in battle were buried there.

An area of 1-acre (4,000 m2) was also set aside for graves of Union veterans (all but one later removed, to Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio).

There was a dirt road running through the grounds of the Cemetery linked to what was then called Onion Creek Highway.