The Grave Hunters
Published May 8th, 2012
By: Yaremi Farinas
Cemeteries are scary and yet fascinating places.
almost every Saturday there is a group that goes out to different cemeteries in Alachua.
They takes pictures of each tombstones in every graveyard.
"It was just history that was being lost," said Jim Powell.
Powell first stepped foot on the Hatchet Creek cemetery in 2001 and now ten years later, he's documented over 70 cemeteries.
"Cemeteries are not a permanent place. They get used for other land purposes, they get vandalized," said Powell.
That's why he started the Alachua County Virtual Cemetery Project.
Every Saturday he goes out to different cemeteries in Alachua and takes pictures of every tombstone, but he doesn't do it all by himself.
"Mount Pleasant was the one that the girls started helping. We took them out several times before and this time we took them out to be just gophers just to help," said Powell.
Soon after, the girls came out every weekend to help their grandfather.
Camara Casson is one of Powell's granddaughters.
She said some people may think what they are doing is out of the ordinary.
"It's not creepy. We don't go and dig up their bodies, no.We just take a picture of their stones," said Casson.
Before taking the pictures, they make sure they can see everything carved on the tombstone.
Some grave stones are so old they start by watering down the gravestone. Then they brush it off and pour some more water on it. Use a chalk so you can see the letters.
Minutes later it's ready to be photographed, but some stones are a bit challenging.
Elora Powell told us about a time she was frustrated because as much as she watered, scrubbed and chalked down the stone, she still couldn't see anything. Right when she was about to give up her grandfather told her the meaning behind what she was doing.
"He told me that it was saving history and that it was a piece of history that would have just gone away and nobody would have known about it if I wasn't doing it. So I stayed there for a couple more minutes and it got cleaned and I took a picture of it and I felt very good because I saved a little piece of history," said Elora.
That's the same way other volunteers feel.
"I say a little prayer at each one of those so it's just kind of two things in once, praying for the dead and saving history," said Irene Sylvester.
Taylor Griffith is another one of Powell's granddaughters.
She said she believes what they are doing is making a difference.
"Families that didn't know where their family was buried, now if they go online they can find their ancestors and family members that they didn't know they had," said Griffith.
Every picture is uploaded on their website the WizardofAR.
There you can find all the cemeteries they've documented and the headstones in each cemetery.
"We'll have a database at the end of this that you be able to go through and anybody that was buried that had a maker that had something that said anything will be in our database," said Powell.
So that you can find any ancestors that might have been buried in a Alachua County cemetery.
If you would like to volunteer or come across a unmarked cemetery contact Jim Powell at jepthor@windstream.net.
