Preservation Of Virginia Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)Project

Melvin Johnson
"On the morning of 12 November, several board members of Helping Hand Cemetery Club (Maurice Darden, Shelton Darden Jr, Dolores Peterson, Vernon Darden, and Melvin Johnson) met with the Preservation Virginia team, David Givens and his assistant, to perform GPR survey of the Helping Hand Cemetery in Courtland. Also in attendance was Stephen H Cowles, Staff Writer, from the local newspaper, The Tidewater News, who chronicled the activities taking place. Over a period of approximately 4 1/2 hours, the team was able to cover the open areas in the cemetery. To everyone's surprise, there were many hidden graves beneath the surface in these areas. These unmarked graves were marked with flags to be better identified later as grave sites. The Preservation Virginia team, after further analysis, will provide the Helping Hand Cemetery Club with a detailed printout of the GPR results."