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Attempt to locate graves begins near Ft. Wilkins

Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette The archaeological search for four graves in the Ft. Wilkins cemetery involved a high-tech unit, ground penetrating radar, to take photograpic-like images beneath the surface soil. The highly sensitive technology will show anomolies in the ground, such as less dense soil that could, in fact, be a grave.

COPPER HARBOR — Fort Wilkins seems to be as busy this summer as it was when it was garrisoned from 1844-46 and again from 1867-70. Along with celebrations of the former military post’s 175th anniversary, Michigan Technological University’s Industrial Archaeology Department was also at the fort.

Friday and Saturday, the archaeology team, under the direction of Industrial Archaeologist Tim Scarlett, conducted ground-penetrating radar (GPR) searches for at least four graves known to exist within the post’s cemetery. One is the graves they are searching for is that of a soldier who died of disease in January, 1845. Two soldiers died at the fort during the second occupation, one from delirium tremens, while the other died of exposure. The fourth grave is that of a young boy named William Grose, who was the son of a post laundress, and drowned in a boating accident in Lake Fanny Hooe.

GPR uses a high frequency radio signal that is transmitted into the ground. Reflected signals are returned to the receiver and stored on digital media. The computer measures the time taken for a pulse to travel to and from the target which indicates its depth and location.

“You have a sled that is integrated with the two antennas in it, and it has a transmitter and a receiver,” Scarlett said. “They are a set distance apart, and the computer can calculate a signal return, based on the distance and the location of everything.”

Scarlett said he and his team are looking for something that is different, the size of a grave. It may be more or less rocky, or more or less dense, than the ground surrounding it.

Because of modern technology, such as GPR, magnetometers, electrical resistivity, hyposcrectral imaging, and others, archaeological projects like the cemetery survey, can be conducted without disturbing the site.

“We have no plans to dig anything,” Scarlett said. “There’s no reason to dig.”

While one might ask what would be the significance in locating the graves, their location is important to the Fort Wilkins State Park for historical preservation.

“In knowing the location of graves, we won’t in this case, be able to identify them as individuals, not without disturbing them,” Scarlett said. “But what it does do is it helps the park managers make decisions about this place in terms of how they are managing the property.”

For instance, the cemetery is very near a park trail, the parking lot and playground/picnic area. But park management is not certain the area within the fence is the specific location of the cemetery, or the graves. The actual cemetery could, therefore, be beneath or near the playground, as an example.

“If they were going to start digging to install playground equipment, and they start turning up human bones, that never goes well when it happens by accident,” said Scarlett. “So, the idea is if we can help the park to narrow down, and be more confident, then when they are making planning decisions about other areas of the park, assuming they would never develop this spot, which is, I think, fair to say, the park can be more confident that they are not going to accidentally disinter the remains here, or more specifically, like right here in the path.”

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