8 April 2022

Dear Friends of Spring Hill Cemetery,

As you know, we had the Canine forensic survey March 2nd. In preparation for the event, we had cleared the cemetery floor of as much debris as possible on our February 25th workday. Debris piles that were unable to fit in the dump truck were raked to the edges of the paths. Unfortunately, the Dogs were somewhat distracted by our newly raked piles of leaves which carried cadaver scent. Despite the piles, ICF did identify several "new" possible burial locations in the March survey, but feel that Spring Hill has many more spots to identify. To avoid distractions for the dogs, ICF asked that we remove the piles of leaves at least a month before the next survey.

The workday's mission was to remove the multitude of remaining piles of leaves. 10 of us gathered at the cemetery under sunny skies to tackle the task. We needed every last one of us. Hauling all those piles under the warm sun made for a very strenuous day. By the end of the day all piles were safely tucked into the dump truck ready for Regional Parks to haul away. Sally will report success to ICF, and hopefully we will have another canine survey in a month or so. Thanks, Sally, for all your coordination on this effort.

We did have a bit of time left over at the end to explore the footstone found last month during the metal detecting survey. After probing, we uncovered 2 pieces of Mary A Rogers' footstone, pictures 3 and 4. It seems there may be a third piece, but if so, we were unable to find it yesterday. We will further probe for it in June. We will also be probing in the ICF identified areas - hopefully we will have time to start that in June.

Other pictorial highlights of the day:

Picture 1: Jim manned the dump truck, squeezing debris into every last corner of the truck.

Picture 2: We were joined by the most handsome of all our volunteers, (sorry, Jim, Jerry, Mike, and Bryan). Picture 2

shows 2 year-old Jasper diligently tending to his 5xGreat Grandfather, Jacob McReynolds.

Picture 5: Spring Hill with its cleared floor.

Picture 6: The group!!! THANK YOU GUYS FOR COMING!!

Our next workday is planned for June 10th. Please mark your calendar and join us.

Picture #1

Picture #2

Picture #3
Finding Mary A. Roger's Footstone

Picture #4
MAR Footstone

Picture #5
Spring Hill Cemetery

Picture #6
Group