VERIFICATION OF GRAVE SITES USING GEOPHYSICAL METHODS AT THE HOLLIDAY CEMETERY

The Holliday Cemetery has headstones dating back to the early 19th century and includes veterans from the American Revolutionary War, the Mexican--American War, and the American Civil War and from several modern wars into the mid 20th century. Many burial plots were lost during the mid 20th century due to storm damage, vandalism, and neglect; however, the current land owner has begun to restore the cemetery. A team of geophysicists from Southern Illinois University Carbondale were invited to assist with this effort by investigating several vacant areas within existing grave rows for evidence of unmarked graves.

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) was used at the historically significant Holliday Cemetery in Jackson County, Illinois, to identify unmarked graves and verify headstone placement for existing graves. The data were collected using the Noggin SmartCart Plus 250 and 500 MHz frequency antennae and processed using EKKO View Deluxe and GPR Slice software. Each GPR data set was processed with a batch of data manipulation techniques to enhance the desired anomalies and increase signal to noise ratio. Processing and interpretation were focused on finding a correlation between the burial date and GPR signal characteristics. The high tree density and clay rich soil posed problems for collecting and interpreting the data, but preliminary results proved very helpful.