The Delineation of the Minshew-Thomas-Sullivan Cemetery (9HT128), G-RAMP, ROBINS AFB AND THE CITY OF WARNER ROBINS, HOUSTON COUNTY, GEORGIA

The Georgia Robins Aerospace Maintenance Partnership (G-RAMP) is a proposed development involving the City of Warner Robins and Robins Air Force Base (AFB) in northern Houston County, Georgia. The Executive Summary (ES) of the October 5, 2011 Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) for this project proposed the establishment of a protective fence and 20-foot buffer around a historic family cemetery (Figure 1) on the project area's southern boundary (AMEC 2011:50; ES-11). This buffer was deemed necessary due to uncertainty as to whether or not there might be unidentified graves around the margin of the cemetery. Three early sources referencing the cemetery posited differing numbers of graves. Howell (1982:121) reported nine marked and 11 unmarked graves in this cemetery, Maltais (Garrow and Holland 1993:8) documented seven marked and 11 unmarked graves, and Espenshade and Holland (1996) reported that the cemetery contains 15 marked graves and at least 12 depressions that may represent unmarked graves. The latter report included a sketch map (Figure 2) of the cemetery, but it was not based on an archaeological delineation. In fact, no investigation of the cemetery thus far, including a more recent investigation by Cultural Resource Analysts (Avery and Garrow 2011) has delineated the cemetery's precise boundaries via standard techniques. On 14 March 2011, Robins AFB's onsite archaeologist (hereafter "Project Archaeologist') performed a pedestrian survey of this cemetery, and in the process identified a minimum of 18 marked graves and at least 15-20 east-west depressions (i.e., probable unmarked graves). Based on this information, and with the approval and cooperation of the Engineering Department of the City of Warner Robins and Robins AFB?fs 78th Civil Engineer Group (78 CEG), an archaeological delineation was subsequently performed to establish the cemetery's actual physical boundaries. This delineation, conducted by the Project Archaeologist in consultation with Assistant City Engineer Charles Beauchea and the Sullivan family, was performed between February and May 2012. The goal of this study was to use accepted professional techniques to locate and map all marked and unmarked graves, thereby ensuring their protection during the development of the property.