My wife Gisela and I very much enjoyed our visit to Clarkesville and your beautiful old cemetery last Thursday and Friday. We also enjoyed meeting you, your wife, Joy and Millie and seeing and hearing about all the good things your community are doing in historic preservation and public interpretation. With the good (albeit cold) weather and the gorgeous accommodations at the Inn at Sutton Mill, we really had a memorable couple of days in Habersham County.
With this letter I wish to summarize my findings and recommendations regarding the potential for placing a reconstructed chapel near the center of the Old Clarkesville Cemetery. You are aware that in my 30-year career as a professional archeologist and my 12-year term as president of my local historic society, I have located and delineated hundreds of cemeteries (450 in Oglethorpe County alone), conducted detailed inventories of graves in about 40 cemeteries and directed or assisted in the exhumation and moving of graves in about twelve cemeteries in Georgia.
As you presented it to me, the objective of my investigation was to determine if any graves exist in an approximately 25 by 50 ft central area of the cemetery where there are no obvious graves. This area lies between several rock-walled graves/tombs to the south and two very large hemlock trees to the north. Standing tombstones roughly mark the east and west ends of our study area (see enclosed map).
Help us to continue to make advances in research, stewardship, and bringing the past to life. No matter the size of the gift, your contribution will directly support groundbreaking archaeological research through sustaining student and outreach programs, and technological innovations. To make a secure gift online to the Archaeology Lab Fund, CLICK HERE.