Here is an article that I picked-up on a business trip back in January, stuck it in my briefcase, and forgot it when I got back home. I have reproduced it here for the benefit of the list members. It bears directly on the cemeteries in Walton and other places as well. I have another comment or two at the bottom of the article. GROUPS WANT CEMETERIES TO REST IN PEACE Booming development can put small graveyards at risk, especially in South By Larry Copeland USA TODAY Monday, January 17, 2000 p3A WALNUT GROVE, Ga.-Billy Hudson stands in a subdivision street in this booming suburb east of Atlanta and points toward several houses with manicured lawns. "We don't have any idea if the cemetery was on that lot, or that lot, or that lot," he says. Hudson, who works to preserve abandoned and unmarked cemeteries, says the burial ground included the grave of Robert Echols, a Georgia hero of the Mexican War whose remains were exhumed from Mexico and reburied. Developers of the Walton County suburb in this once sleepy corner of Georgia say they had extensive surveys done on the 70-acre parcel and found no evidence of a cemetery. In addition, they say they were assured by both the county and the seller that there was no graveyard on the property. "Where I come from, I would not desecrate a grave," says Darrell McWaters of Meridian Homes Inc, "Nobody wants to put a subdivision on top of a cemetery". The dispute over the cemetery, which is not listed on county plats but is remembered by residents as containing 138 graves, highlights a problem accompanying the growth of many of the nation's suburbs and exurbs. As today's demand for new houses, ball fields and shopping malls bulldozes ever farther into rural areas, yesterday's eternal resting places are being destroyed or lost. Preservationists say that there are no federal laws protecting abandoned cemeteries on private property, and that local statutes are often inadequate or unenforced. "We would like to see, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation has agreed to help us develop, federal protective legislation for cemeteries says Denise Webb, administrator of the Association for Gravestone Studies in Greenfield, Mass., which seeks to preserve burial grounds. "We hope to create a uniformity by the states so that should you decide to move to another state, you won't have to worry about Mom and Dad being paved over and their burial sites being lost." Webb says she will meet with representatives of the trust Tuesday to begin working out details of their legislative proposal. She says her organization is also working to establish an online database of cemeteries and burial grounds nationwide. The problem is more acute in Southern states than elsewhere, archaeologist Patrick Garrow says. He is vice president of TRC Garrow Associates, an engineering firm in Atlanta that specializes in identifying and marking abandoned burial grounds at construction sites across the nation. "In the Northeast, it was common to have community cemeteries and the dead were interred in one area," he says. In Georgia and throughout the rural South, people historically buried family members practically anywhere they thought appropriate at the edge of the family property, in shady groves on pastureland, in small church cemeteries. Families rarely recorded these cemeteries on land plats; back then, everyone know where they were. But as families sold land and moved on or died off, and as church congregations disbanded or relocated, the cemeteries became overgrown. Then they were forgotten. Garrow estimates that In Georgia, "tens of thousands" of cemeteries, ranging in size from a few graves to hundreds of plots, have been lost. In Walton County, for Instance, officials in 1998 acknowledged losing track of 17 cemeteries during an eight-year period And that's in a state with one of the nation's best cemetery preservation laws. Georgia's Abandoned Cemeteries and Burial Grounds Act, enacted In 1901, prohibits the destruction of cemeteries and requires that developers take steps to preserve them. Several other States have modeled legislation after it, Garrow says. However, with only sketchy oral histories to guide them, preservationists often are left with memories of cemeteries but no hard evidence. That was the case with the Meridian Homes development miles east of Atlanta, exploded in growth over the past decade as the sprawling city pushed farther out. McWaters and his partner, David Willett, bought a 70-acre parcel off Georgia Highway 138 five years ago. They paid $4,000 for a boundary survey, which was supposed to identify everything on the property, and began building homes. McWaters says they had spent about $500,000 before they were told there was a cemetery on the property. We called the county and said, "We're hearing about a cemetery here, What do we need to do? They had no record of a cemetery. We called the seller, and he said he had no record of it. What more can you do?" He says the company has been diligent in its efforts to protect the dead. It spent $15,000 to preserve a small graveyard in one development and $8,000 to preserve another. McWaters says it was Hudson who told them about the cemetery. Hudson is 55, and his family has lived here since 1809. He has been fighting for 20 years to preserve what he sees as jewels of historic importance. His efforts have paid off. The county is developing a list of abandoned cemeteries. Several miles away from what he says is the Echols cemetery. Hudson stands amid headstones and grave markers that rise incongruously In the middle of a subdivision cul-de-sac. He tenderly removes a few broken branches and carefully replaces a headstone. "That Echols cemetery, that's a part of history that's gone today," he says. "This county is really starting to take off. I know these cemeteries are at risk, I know that if we're going to do anything, now is the time. END OF ARTICLE The article also contained a small inset map showing the approximate location of Walnut Grove with respect to Atlanta and a photo of a man wearing a cap, leather jacket, jeans and heavy boots standing in a "field" with a new house in the background as he looks down at a folder of papers with the following caption: On a mission: Billy Hudson, who works to rescue cemeteries, looks at his records to check the site of a graveyard In Walton County, Ga END OF PICTURE DESCRIPTION Mr. Cox, I'm sure you must know Mr. Hudson. Is he on your Walton Cemetery Committee? Is he on-line? Would he be interested in joining this list? Walter Freeman