DECATUR, Ga — The discovery of an unmarked burial stopped construction on a multi-use path near Decatur’s Legacy Park entrance last month. A new study revealed that the number of unmarked burials might be as high as 33.
Assistant City Manager for Public Works Cara Scharer said during the Decatur City Commission meeting on Monday that the State Historic Preservation Office’s ground-penetrating radar study indicates conditions that may correspond with 33 potential unmarked burials, a majority of which could be children.
“Changes in soil consistency were used to establish the probable size of each burial. Based on the size, the burials may include one adult, 22 children, eight infants and two cremations,” Scharer said.
The spacing of the burials indicates that they were buried separately, although tightly packed and approximately 30 feet from the road. Scharer told Decaturish that the State Historic Preservation Office placed the approximate date of the burials to be around the 1880s.
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