There are many unmarked cemeteries scattered around Gadsden County.
Last week one of those had a visitor.
Suzi Goodhope with her Human Remains Detection Dog, a Belgian Malinois named Shiraz, visited a graveyard north of Quincy where only a few head stones remain of a once-large cemetery.
Goodhope allowed Shiraz to systematically work the area and her dog was able to find about eight possible locations of unmarked graves.
Interestingly, the dog has been trained to sit when she finds a grave and wait for her master to give her a treat.
Goodhope explained that her dogs have been trained to detect human remains long after death, despite burial or attempted concealment.
Trained dogs are able to distinguish between human remains, animal remains, and a wide range of other odors that would normally be expected to distract them.
Goodhope has used her dogs in a number of applications and has worked on several cases involving the Florida Public Archaeology network.
The approximately two-acre cemetery was once the location of a Methodist Church which was moved many years ago.
Those marked gravestones date back to the middle 1870s.
In addition to Shiraz’s finds, Jeffrey H. Shanks, RPA, National Park Service Southeast Archeological Center, found what he thought may have been indentations in the soil which could mean possible grave sites as well.
Those indentations were facing east and west, which is a historical layout for graves.
Locally, Billy Poston was at the location and remembered the cemetery as a young child before it was abandoned and allowed to become overgrown.
His great-great-grandfather is buried in the cemetery.
Also on hand was Barbara Hines from Florida Public Archaeology, North Central Region that includes Gadsden County.
Plans for the cemetery, Poston said, are to continue to clean up the area and try to find out who some of the families are that are buried there.