'Probable burial site' found in rural Taylor County

Nine possible graves were located through archaeological imaging after landowners Steve and Susan Basler requested a geophysical survey done on their property Sept. 23 in rural Taylor County.

Steve, a 48-year farmer, had farmed a portion of the 120 acres near their home for approximately three decades, but since they heard from the landowner during that time that a portion of the acreage contained two rumored Indian burials, they had never farmed or disturbed the area in question, his wife Susan said.

“Steve and I farm together, and I’m sure not going to combine or run a tractor over a cemetery,” she said.

Susan said the rumor of a possible cemetery had inspired curiosity and been passed down in the community for years through word-of-mouth. So, when they purchased the acreage across the road from their home in Nov. 2017, the pair decided it was finally time to find out for certain what they had.

Susan said she and her husband had looked at plat map of the area which had two crosses labeled on it, giving them a general idea of where to start. Michael L. White, retired agronomist for Iowa State University, came out in June and employed the method of dowsing, a practice using metal wires that is sometimes used to locate ground water and other ground disturbances to see if there were indeed any graves. While the practice is controversial, White’s positive findings left one thing certain: the Baslers then knew they needed learn exactly what lay beneath their property.

“At that point (we) decided we really wanted to know,” Susan said.

A call to the Office of the State Archaeologist got her in touch with Quinn Black, curator of archaeology at the Sanford Museum in Cherokee. Being one of the closest in the area with a gradiometer — a survey tool that measures magnetic fields and anomalies — Black was recommended to the family. And by September, the archaeological investigation was underway.

“They wanted to follow the right procedures and right process if there was a cemetery there,” Black said.

Black said that the gradiometer can detect disturbed soil, buried houses, prehistoric archaeological sites and graves.

“Basically, it helps detect things below the ground,” he said.

On Wednesday, Sept. 23, Black spent the day setting up four rectangular grids over the area of interest which was located on a westward sloping hillside of the Baslers’ property. Each grid measured 10 by 10 meters. For every step Black took, he took eight photographs into the ground, Susan said. Black walked back and forth over the gridded area with the gradiometer to collect data on whether or not the ground beneath him had any detectable disturbances.

“And that data is logged into the device which I then take back to the office and create the map and then interpret the data,” he said.

After Black got the report, he was able to see what was below the ground at the Baslers. The findings? A probable burial site, Black said.

“Based on what showed up with the imagery, there are possibly nine graves there,” he said. “The readings show up for what we normally (recognize) are burials. It’s a gridded map so you can take the measurements, and it’s about the size of what a human would be in the grave.”

Black said the probable bodies were east-west oriented, which is very common with Christian burials. According to thecandidcemetery.com, non-universal Christian tradition is that “the body is buried in such a way that the feet are oriented to the east and the head (is) oriented to the west.” Burial traditions that have the dead facing east are either so that those buried can face the rising sun or because Christians refer to Christ as being the “light of the world.”

“There’s an actual picture of the ground when he took the picture with the gradiometer, and you can actually see the legs — what he thought were legs — pointing to the east,” Susan said.

Unfortunately, the details of who lies beneath the Basler property may never be known. Black said to be certain, whatever or whoever lies beneath the surface would have to be exhumed. Because the area is being reported to the state as a “probable burial site,” Black said that digging there would be illegal.

But that does not mean they can’t have confident conjecture about some things. Black said the shapes that show up in the imagery can be quite telling to archaeologists. Long rectangular, oval shapes tell the experts they may be dealing with human remains. House outlines can be seen, as well. Small, circular shapes alert them of possible prehistoric storage pits and the images of lines underground can show the presence of probable tracks, like from a vehicle or wagon. Black found some of these linear markings on the images he studied of the Baslers’ land.

“I said in the report I thought I saw maybe some tracks and it looked like it’s possibly maybe some wagon wheel tracks. Or maybe, if they were burying the bodies, (they) brought them out on a wagon and then removed them from the wagon and buried them right there. ... It could have been automotive, too. But it looked like the size of wagon tracks.”

Black thinks it is likely that what the Baslers have is an early settler’s cemetery, based on his collective findings.

“Because there are a few other cemeteries within a few miles around that were found, and one cemetery is a family cemetery and I think it’s about two miles away to the east, and there are three graves there. It’s a registered cemetery and all three graves were around the 1880s, so my best guess is, with the people in the area, it’s probably a pioneer cemetery also,” he said.

Black said a lot of unmarked graves and early settler cemeteries are found in his profession, so jobs like this one are not uncommon. Black, who lives in Northwest Iowa, said he enjoyed being able to come down and explore new territory and help the Basler family investigate their land.

The Baslers are able to farm 80 acres, but the back 40 that includes the probable graves is pasture and hay ground, includes a pond in the valley, is used for recreation by the family and is soon to be the location of a memorial rock, placed in respect of those who are buried there.

“We want to put some type of a marker there to honor the people who are there, at least a big rock with probably a plaque on it claiming that there’s a frontier cemetery there,” Steve said.

Steve said he is pleased that they were able to verify what is there and the couple said they’ve even come up with a name for the now official site: Grove 28 Early Pioneer Cemetery.

“We had never planned on farming that part anyway. ... Basically, what the whole thing came down to for us was to find out for sure exactly what we had, because of the fact that we want to pass our farm on to our children and grandchildren,” Susan said.

Currently, the Baslers are awaiting further recommendations from the Office of the State Archaeologist in Iowa City.

“It was definitely a learning experience,” Susan said. “... I’m going to continue to investigate.”

According to the Sanford Museum’s website, they offer geophysical surveys as a non-invasive technique to identify what is buried on your property. For more information on rates and services, contact the museum at archaeologist@sanfordmuseum.org or call 712-225-3922.