I See Dead People (With My Ground-Penetrating Radar)

By Margaret Lyons in News on Jul 2, 2004 8:51PM

People get all crazygonuts when it comes to semiabandoned Civil War cemeteries. The Milton Township Cemetery Authority is claiming jurisdiction over the Jewell Grove Cemetery in the Champion Forest subdivision in Wheaton. Authorities want to “trim and clean up the woods, find and restore toppled and dislocated grave monuments, and make the burial ground off Jewell Road more attractive to visitors,” according to the Tribune. Using ground-penetration radar, the cemetery authority would be able to identify where the 25 or so people buried on the grounds are and remark their graves.
Sound good? Not if you’re Dolores Gaittens, a descendant of the Jewell family who claims ownership of the cemetery but lacks a deed or title to the property. Gaittens denies that the property is abandoned, preferring instead to think of it as “‘preserved.’” A restoration ecologist told the Tribune that the grounds is “ ‘overgrown and degraded’ with mustard weeds, which contribute to the area's mosquito infestation.” Yow.
A Wheaton judge ordered this week that the parties try to resolve the squabble out of court. But if we know anything about those cemetery restoration people....