TERRE HAUTE —
The painstaking work of locating, restoring and moving unmarked graves discovered on city property will be underway today near Terre Haute North Vigo High School.
City officials signed an agreement Monday that gives the green light for Indiana State University to begin the first phase of the project, which will involve finding perhaps dozens of unmarked graves and restoring some graves accidentally disturbed by utility work.
Shawn Phillips, an archeologist and associate professor at ISU, is an expert in working with grave sites such as the one discovered on the property of the city’s Emergency Responder Training Academy on July 11. He will be leading the efforts to locate the graves, which are to be moved eventually to Highland Lawn Cemetery.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources is ultimately overseeing the project, city officials said last week.
The agreement signed Monday between the city and ISU states the city will pay approximately $11,000 for phase one of the project, said Bill Lower, president of the Terre Haute Board of Public Works and Safety, who signed on behalf of the city. The entire project is estimated at around $100,000, and the costs are expected to be shared between the city and Vigo County, according to city officials.
The graves are at the site of the former Vigo County Home, also known as the County Poor Farm.
The unmarked graves were discovered while crews were digging a trench for a new water line to serve the training academy, which is on North Brown Avenue. It is believed at least 49 graves, which date back to the 1800s, are at the site.
Phase one of the project involves locating all of the graves using ground-penetrating radar. It also involves sifting through earth disturbed last month while the water line work was being conducted, Phillips said.
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Archeologists starting work on gravesites
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