Missouri already has statutes protecting old family graveyards, even if they are abandoned. Current owners cannot excavate unless the remains are exhumed and moved; family members must be allowed access. The statute is not perfect (current owners have a right to destroy the cemetery AFTER they pay for removal of the bodies), but it did provide ammunition to preserve the remains of my ancestors from Old Edwards Cemetery, Nixa, MO. The (dwindling) remains of family members (only found by an archaeologist hired by the current owner) and their slaves were moved to McConnell Cemetery, and relatives paid for a large new monument to commemorate the mass grave. (The current owner hired the archaeologist to DISPROVE the well-known fact that the site was a cemetery and had been well-maintained and decorated until 1940.) Randy McConnell