Of all the places where people could be buried, a couple’s graves and those of their two relatives could be found at an airport runway, Google Maps revealed. The graves could be found in Savannah/Hilton Head Airport, Georgia, USA.
Couple Catherine and Richard Dotson have been buried on the western half of the airport, at the edge of runways 10 and 28. Their graves have been there for over 140 years.
How it started
The Dotsons, who were both born in 1797, used to own the land which is now the airport. The land was known as Cherokee Hills and the couple enjoyed their life together, having been married for five decades.
The reason behind their bizarre burial
Sadly, Catherine passed away in 1877 and so did her husband in 1884. Traditions at the time dictated that the couple had to be buried next to each other on their land at Cherokee Hill.
Their burial area was in fact the family cemetery on their farm, which was made up of about 100 graves.
The military needed to prepare
Then came World War II in the 1940s and the US military wanted to ensure that they were prepared. Cherokee Hills caught the military’s eyes as they needed space for setting up additional facilities and landing their B-24 “Liberators” and B-17 “Flying Fortresses.”
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A deal was made
According to the airport’s official website, “A lease was negotiated between the federal government and the City of Savannah for 1,100 acres, at what is now Savannah/Hilton Head International,” it says.
How the airport came to be
“Shortly after its acquisition, the federal government began a program of obtaining additional acreage to enlarge the facilities at Chatham Field, which had been designated as a command base and heavy bombardment combat crew training station for the second bomb wing of the Army Air Corps,” the website explained.
“Part of this acquisition included a private family cemetery belonging to the Dotson family,” it continued.
More about the airport
Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport is a relatively small-sized airport. It is the second largest airport out of Georgia’s nine commercial airports. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport comes in first place for being the largest.
The great-grandchildren intervened
Almost all of the graves were moved to Bonaventure Cemetery, except those of Catherine and Richard, as their great-grandchildren intervened.
They believed that their great-grandparents didn’t want to be disturbed and wanted to be in the area where they had put so much effort into for decades.
Authorities had no choice but to oblige
The authorities paved the area over the grave but kept markers on the graves as a sign of respect to the Dotsons and their relatives, Daniel Hueston and John Dotson.
The airport added: “These grave sites are the only ones in the world embedded in an active 9,350-foot runway serving thousands of general and commercial aviation operations yearly.”
How to catch a glimpse of them
Whether you’re arriving or deporting via runway 10 in the airport, keep an eye on the tarmac and you might catch a glimpse of two concrete rectangles marking the final burial place of the Dotsons and their relatives.
How it looks today
The graves look more like patches of concrete repair work rather than actual graves amidst the asphalt runway.
Not many know of this story but those who do have ghost stories up their sleeves for when someone takes off and lands on top of the graves.