Ghost Town.

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

What would you do?

It appears that the school board built a new high school atop an old cemetery.

The controversy erupted during the construction of the school, the school board spent 150K to excavate the site but no graves were located. Now an amateur historian has an old map that locates the cemetery beneath the school.

The ghost town existed a century ago. It was built around a lumber mill, and the town had around 2000 people. But the mill closed in 1914 and everyone left. The county Seat is 40 miles away, and there was nothing here but swamps and wilderness. My home sits on the bank of the old millpond. The ruins of the dam and railroad are closeby.

People died here and were buried somewhere; it was rumored that the wooded school site was the lost cemetery but nothing was located with underground radar. And now we have the old map fixing the cemetery under the school.

[TxRad]

Something similar happened with an industrial complex not to far from where I live. The complex was started and then one of the local citizens whose family had lived in the area for over a hundred years took some old family pictures, maps, and plats to the local planning commission. Same thing, an old cemetery was supposed to be on the site.

They ran the ground radar and took core samples. Nothing was found and the complex was finished. Five years later it was found that a survey marked had washed out of a creek bank and had been put back in the wrong place. The cemetery was found a half mile from where it was supposed to be.

There are still contested boundaries and property lines all throughout that area.

[Austin8]

Also happened here, in town too. An eleven story condo project was in the ground work stage. When it was discovered the site set atop an old indian burial ground, the project was halted (For well over a year) while the site was excavated (an under ground parking garage) issue existed.

The Site was carefully dug by archeologist then released by the state for construction, Drainage and sewer lines went in and the building was completed, but during construction down in the depths of the concrete parking garage, faint images could be seen when nothing was there, and sounds of children laughing...

there was more than a few mexicans that refused to go work down there.

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Thanks guys.

I have Tampa papers from the 1890s, and this little patch of Heaven was wild when the town existed. Gun fights and ambushes galore. Apparently the Atlanta company that built the mill and town brought in lotsa black labor, and the men in adjacent counties werent happy about it as the Panic of 1893 was in bloom. I imagine many of the blacks were stripped down to their long-johns and tossed into a hole with a wood marker and forgotten. Even the sheriff was ambushed.

But it will make an interesting ghost story when I add some relish to it. The school is scheduled to open around Halloween, so this will assist my putative story.

[jomar]

Seems like a non-issue to me. The school board excavated and didn't find anything. Of course, it will come out that the company hired to excavate did not use the latest technology to scan the ground and blah, blah, blah.

On the other hand, Halloween will be awesome.

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

JOMAR

I'm thinking I can make a Halloween story out of it. Teens in costume scaring the wimps & girls.

[oggbashan]

In the UK if a green field site is to be built upon, or a site where there are known archaelogical finds, an archaelogical assessment and/or dig must take place.

Locally developers wanted to build on a site which locals, including me, said was prone to flooding. They still got permission subject to an archaelogical dig because there had been recorded finds on the proposed site.

The archaelogists found a Bronze Age settlement which had existed for only two or three years before being abandoned because of...





...flooding.

The housing estate was built. It suffers from intermittent flooding and some houses are unsaleable because no insurer will cover them against flood damage.

Og

[jomar]

Originally Posted by JAMESBJOHNSON

JOMAR

I'm thinking I can make a Halloween story out of it. Teens in costume scaring the wimps & girls.

I didn't see your post #4 when I posted - got sidetracked. Anyway, do it and put it up here. Honorable folk will look at it on its own merit.

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

JOMAR

I have a plot already.

[lance gt]

Originally Posted by JAMESBJOHNSON

JOMAR

I have a plot already.

And Jimmy's twisted and devious mind goes to work..... should be an interesting read. Show us what you got Jimmy.

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Originally Posted by lance gt

And Jimmy's twisted and devious mind goes to work..... should be an interesting read. Show us what you got Jimmy.

IT TAKES 2 HANDS TO HOLD A WHOPPER.