USING NON-INVASIVE TECHNOLOGIES TO MAP AND PRESERVE HISTORIC AFRICAN AMERICAN CEMETERIES IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA

Historic African American cemeteries are often poorly documented, neglected, abandoned, or threatened by encroaching development. The African American Gravesite Preservation Project at Western Carolina University (WCU) has documented over two hundred gravesites of free and formerly enslaved African Americans at six cemeteries in western North Carolina, located in Hayesville, Brevard, Sylva, and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

To map and preserve these sensitive sites, a variety of non-invasive technologies are employed including ground-penetrating radar, drone photography, sub-meter GPS, basic archaeological survey techniques, and archaeological human remains detection (AHRD) canines. Individual graves are marked, digitally mapped, and when appropriate, discreetly monumented to ensure easy location in the future.

Davidson River Cemetery (Brevard, NC) is a historically segregated cemetery with burials dating to the late 1700s. As part of the 2024 Remembrance Project – a regional effort to protect and preserve African American cemeteries – a WCU team has mapped a total of 149 graves in the African American section of Davidson River Cemetery, 85 of which were previously unmarked and unknown.

Community engagement is critical to the success and long-term impact of this research. Since 2010, researchers and students at Western Carolina University have engaged with churches, cemetery boards, community groups, non-profits, volunteer organizations, professional colleagues, tribal leadership, and the National Park Service to raise awareness of sensitive historic burial sites. More recently, to better elucidate the African American contribution to our shared history, commemorative monuments have been placed at four locations, with two additional memorials planned this year.