The Tuesday 4th/5th and 6th grade classes returned to McCortney Graveyard on a warm day this December. The primary mission was to map the graveyard and the marker locations. We had tried to do some of this on other occasions but the perimeter kept changing, which threw off our measurements. We knew that this would be a good day when we stopped to watch three mature bald eagles cruising the Big Piney River for a fish dinner.

This is one of two crews which measured and remeasured the rope fence we put up around the graveyard. We now think we know the exact perimeter distance.

We had a big crew that was very cooperative.

We had two three-person crews measuring the perimeter of the graveyard. We also had seven three-person and one two-person crews measuring the location of the markers. There were 51 gravesites when we started and we hoped to plot all of them. We did get coordinates on 44 of the 51 but found several more possible burials.

Here two students and our bus driver, Karen Carroll, pull tough-stemmed brush from around a large pile of flat stones. We are not sure yet what this pile of stones means. By the way, Mrs. Carroll has worked as hard on this project as we have. She has been on all but the very first trip to the graveyard.