YANCEY COUNTY, NC - CEMETERIES - A Mystery Cemetery
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A MYSTERY CEMETERY

Soon after the land was purchased in 1974 for the site of what would become
Mountain Heritage High School, Herb Allen asked me to walk over some of the
land down by the river which could be used by his Agriculture classes.  After
we had surveyed the property we walked back up the hill and stopped to rest on
a little knoll just about where the present football press box/concessions
stand is now located.  As we stood under some dogwood trees for a couple of
minutes Herb noticed some field stones that appeared to be in somewhat of a
pattern under the trees.  On further inspection it became obvious that it was
an old cemetery.

It was obvious that the graves would have to be moved before construction
could being, we set out at once to fulfill the requirements for doing so.  We
ran notices in the paper and sought information from all available sources,
but it seemed that no one knew about the graves until we finally talked with
Mrs. George Green, who at 90 years of age told us that when she was a child
she remembered her family cultivated crops on that property, and they were
told that it was an Indian cemetery.

I had just talked with a school official from Buncombe County which had just
paid $600,000. to have a cemetery  moved.  We did not have this kind of money
in our budget.  So I contracted a bulldozer operator and took two of our
maintenance men with picks and shovels and instructed them to start below the
graves and just shave off a few inch of dirt at a time until they saw an
indication of a grave.  The men would then dig with hand tools until any
remains are removed.

During the next several days eleven skeletons were discovered, placed in
individual pine boxes and buried at the highest point on  the school property,
which is just south of Tommy Fox's house.

Some interesting facts were:  Of the eleven skeletons one was buried 8 feet
deep, while another was only about 30 inches deep.  This could be the result
of erosion.  One was buried face down, which might indicate that he died in
disgrace, one had a broken arm and one had a bullet hole in his head.  We
thought one could have  been a teen age boy while another was over six feet
tall.  During the operation nothing was found but skeletons and dirt.  We saw
no indication  of nails, hinges, clothes, etc.
				


							By Ed Hunter


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