CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — A historically black cemetery in Clay County was almost left forgotten. That was until a local group decided to step in and change that
Many of the original grave sites have been lost to time… but local neighbours and archaeologists are trying to change that.
Before restoration began, the cemetery wasn’t even visible from the road. Through a community effort, they cleared 428 trees.
One of the volunteers and a retired teacher is Steve Griffith.
“As we started to clear it all, the locals said they didn’t even know there was a cemetery here, so now it’s easy to see it is very visible. It was really cool, it was uncovering history”
When they began in October of 2025, only six grave sites were identified. Now that the number has reached 41, the archaeologists on site expect to find even more.
They can do that by using something called GPR or Ground Penetrating Radar to look underground and see what many suspect is there.
Emily Murray is the head archaeologist conducting this project. She explains how the GPR technology is able to locate graves.
“Essentially, it creates a 3-D image of what’s under the ground and slices going down in layers as you dig into the ground”
This technology is not only crucial to finding unmarked graves… but for the growing development around us.
“GPR and cemetery work is a growing part of the archeology industry. We’re developing more places that we weren’t developing before.”
Volunteers hope that once they get the data back, they will find even more unmarked graves.
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