Several of you know that I train my dogs to find deceased humans.
Most of the searches we do are tragic, sad, and often disturbing on several levels. However we also use our dogs and skills in a much more rewarding way. Historic cemetery searches are of the latter variety.
The following is a search for the Washington NC historical society working on the former plantation that dated back to the 1700s and was owned by the founder of the town. They were working with the university on archeological excavation of the homestead and the family graveyard when their research showed a slave cemetery also on the property. It was overgrown with trees and they decided that they'd wait. Several weeks later they discovered that someone had cleared the trees. They found out the lot had been sold to a developer and they were planning on building a house. Long story short, the historical society had a stop work order put on the property until they could confirm one way or the other the presence of a cemetery.
Enter Brunswick Search and Rescue and our dogs.
A couple of weeks ago, we were asked to bring our dogs to help determine if there was a cemetery where research had determined there was a possibility that there could be unmarked graves. They had used ground penetrating radar and had a number of anomalies. Before they went further, they wanted to have human remains detection dogs check the small area. We ran several dogs and had a number of indications with multiples in the same areas.
Today, I found out that the dogs were absolutely correct.
Link to the story. My apologies if you don't have Facebook. There are a number of photos of the work .
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16UJignGBG/Here's the text from the Facebook post: Update 72
MAJOR UPDATE - The discoveries in this project seem endless. For two years we have been in the process of rediscovering information about Bonner Hill Plantation, one of the most significant plantations in the area as it provided much of the foundational lands for the City of Washington. We started by knowing our ancestral family cemetery, the family of Washington's founding father Col. James Bonner, was in the stand of woods and briar jungle at the northeast end of Oakdale Cemetery within the City of Washington.
Once we decided to recover and restore that, further research by Edwin, our team Archeologist and Researcher, began to uncover the tracts of land that were included in the plantation and other adjacent family lands. The 1960's books by local historian Marilu Burch Smallwood and Edwin's later research helped identify the plantation, the location of the home, the nearby family cemetery, the existence of a cemetery of enslaved people somewhere on the plantation, and the subsequent splits and transfers of those lands over more than 275 years.
During the past two years, while working in the cemetery, cutting, digging, cleaning, raking, finding bricks and stone, and new graves and tombs, we've spent hours of many days talking about all of these elements. One of the things we have often discussed is that the plantation would have also included a slave cemetery and where it might be located. Edwin's research later turned up deeds transferring the lands, excepting cemeteries, one for the whites and one for the blacks. That was our first documented proof of the existence of a slave cemetery. They went on to describe the white cemetery as being an acre and the black cemetery being half an acre.
While working in Sycamore Cemetery, we speculated about where that slave cemetery might have been. Our Sycamore Cemetery was grown up in woods and briars for over 100 years because the owners of the land always farmed around it. Once generations stopped caring for it it became overgrown. In early 20th century images we saw the one acre of woods. Nearby, in those images we also saw half an acre of woods, both in cultivated farmland. And on the ground from Sycamore Cemetery, we noticed across the field the same half acre of woods/brush.
Recently the overgrowth was removed and the owner allowed us to perform Ground Penetrating Radar and cadaver dog scans. When they provided many positive hits, the last step was to perform limited excavation to see if Archeologists could identify any grave shafts. We are thrilled to report we have identified the Bonner Hill Plantation cemetery of enslaved people.
This is a major breakthrough in further uncovering our shared history in this sacred site that has been hidden for generations. Sycamore Cemetery is the only recovered colonial era cemetery in the City of Washington and now this Cemetery of Enslaved People is the only identified slave cemetery in the City of Washington, Beaufort County, and the region.
As Washington prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary in 2026, we look forward to working with the developer and community leaders to ensure this site is respectfully memorialized. It’s a powerful opportunity to honor those whose stories were nearly lost and to bring truth, dignity, and healing to our shared history.
Preserving history is costly. We are deeply grateful for our supporters who see value in this historic recovery and preservation. While our labor is free, the vast majority of expenses have been out of pocket, and we have the most costly work ahead in:
Stone repair and replacement
Tomb rebuilding
Another year of fence rental
Landscaping
Then permanent fencing
Now memorializing the cemetery of enslaved people
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