GRAVE HUNTING WITH GROUND PENETRATING RADAR AT THE HISTORICAL HULL HOUSE CEMETERY

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is a useful tool for the forensic field. GPR can locate disturbed soils and areas of unmarked gravesites. The Hull House property is located in Lancaster, New York, and was built during the early 1800s. This property includes the family cemetery of Warren and Polly Hull and their descendents, and was built during the 1830s. During the 1980s, the cemetery was vandalized with many of the tombstones being knocked over, broken and/or taken from the property. Out of an estimated twenty to thirty original gravesites, only one gravestone remains in its original position. Approximately four to five broken gravestones are scattered across the site.

With the help from ground penetrating radar the location of those unknown burial sites in the cemetery could be found. The GPR unit used for the project was the Sensors & Software Pulse Ekko 100A and was provided by the University at Buffalo's Environmental Geophysics Research Lab. The 100 MHz antenna was used to collect the forty profiles along the width of the cemetery with a spacing of .5 meters. Data were collected in the field within a two day period, and processed using the Win-Ekko-Pro and Fortner Transform computer software. These programs generated a two dimensional image of the subsurface at varying depth slices from the forty profiles collected. From the two dimensional profile images, the location of high amplitude parabolic reflections showed locations that indicated disturbed soils and potential gravesites. Approximately 18 gravesites were located on a generated depth slice at 1.5 meters. This data was used to generate a map of the subsurface at a depth of 1.5 meters that showed these high amplitude parabolic reflectors, and this map will be given to the Landmark Society of the Niagara Frontier as a guide for future location of the unmarked gravesites.