Old Mt. Zion Church was organized in 1848. It was located two miles east of Vanndale. IN 1850 Col. David C. Cross gave 30 acres and building was erected. In 1885 the church was moved to Vanndale. In 1934 the sons of daughters of the pioneers who established the church and cemetery organized a cemetery association. H. L. Lessenberry was the first president and Mrs. Hare the secretary. They met once a year the next several years, the last meeting in 1940. On August 8, 1940 a marker was placed marking the site of the old church. The last two members of the church were there, Mrs. Grace Hare Sneed and Mrs. Nannie Miller Legg.
In 1963, through the combined efforts of the historical commission of the North Arkansas Conference and a committee composed of Ben Horne, Luther Sigman and Thomas Baker of the Forrest City District Men’s Fellowship placed a Georgia granite stone on the same site commemorating the church and birthplace of the White River Conference organized there in 1870.