"Grave hunters help to preserve history of state." (cross-posted from Arkansas group)

[Adsos Letter]

Source: Arkansas Democrat Gazette

BRYANT - George Gatliff walked across a leaf-covered hill next to a strip mall and pressed his foot down on a small, partly buried rock.

"It's solid," the 78-year-old amateur archaeologist said, confident he'd found another spot in an unkept cemetery where Arkansas pioneers were laid to rest.

After five years of tramping around the backwoods of western Arkansas looking for abandoned cemeteries with his friend Meeks Etchieson, it takes little more than a slight depression in the dirt or a curiously placed rock to tell Gatliff he's on hallowed ground.

The two are grave hunters, out to record a bit of history and maybe even prevent it from being demolished by modern conveniences.

Along with other volunteers across the state who have the macabre-sounding hobby, the duo is an integral part of making sure that lost cemeteries are found and not forgotten, archaeologists said.


Read more: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/247652/

[glowing]

1. I have a couple of old graves in the back woods at my mom's house where I grew up in VT.

and a lot of Indian artifacts.. pretty neat.

[Historic NY]

2. Somebody's got to do it.

I do some myself & have a 15 thousand name database from my area. I work with some large local cemetery's also to get their records computerized so they can be used.

[Ex Lurker]

4. As a kid I did a fair amount of roaming through the woods near our house

one time I found a lone headstone that just said "Our Dear Father." It still makes me sad thinking about it.

[Historic NY]

5. I find some interesting ones MOH winner, ex-governors, Rev. War & slave burials..

I am always looking for earlier burials.

[Ex Lurker]

6. Up through my childhood and youth

I'm 47 now--it was possible to find tree markings made by early explorers, etc. In places you could still see vestiges of the "Three Notches Trail," a branch of the El Camino Real, which linked the Natchez Trace with Texas and on into Mexico. That's all pretty well gone now.

[shraby]

3. Another good thing to do is take your digital

camera to a local cemetery and proceed to photograph all the stones in the cemetery. That will freeze them in time. Some deteriorate much faster than you'd think. I'm in the process of photographing and have people photograph all the stones in the county I live in. We have a lot done, but a lot to go. I put them online with transcriptions for researchers.
http://www.usgenweb.org has a tombstone project you can send the photos to, just find the state/county you are taking them for and contact the coordinator for that county and she will welcome them with open arms.

[semillama]

7. Good for these guys.

You can't expect this type of work anymore except from volunteers, what with states slashing their historic preservation budgets to shreds in this economy.

This type of volunteerism is especially needed in states like Ohio, where we don't have any special protections for historical cemeteries. Indiana does have a program that actually keeps track of cemeteries and you can enter in data for ones you discover - wish we had something similar here in Buckeye land.