Grave mapping under way at proposed mega-park site in Danville

DANVILLE -- The man leading the archaeological survey at a proposed industrial mega-park site said he expects to find other cemeteries on the property.

Lyle Browning, president of Midlothian-based Browning & Associates Ltd., which is performing the archaeological survey, said he has already discovered another small cemetery besides the one revealed last month where slaves are buried. The new, smaller cemetery contains the graves of two children who died in the 1850s, he said.

Browning said cemeteries found will be sectioned off, preserved and protected from damage due to development.

"We map out graves and recommend the project work its way around them," Browning said.

Each site is mapped and identified, and a determination is made whether it's eligible for entry into the National Register of Historic Places, Browning said. The next step is to find ways to mitigate the effects of development near the site.

Browning said Pittsylvania County's estimation of about 200 graves at the slave cemetery revealed last month is likely accurate. The survey of the cemetery began Sept. 29 and is nearly complete, he said. The survey will include a visual examination of the gravesites and marking of the graves, as well as an outer limit survey, Browning said. Besides gravestones and other surface grave markers, nothing else has been discovered at the cemetery, he said.

The cemetery is part of the first, 260-acre portion of land to be surveyed at the Berry Hill Road mega-park site. After that, Browning and his team will survey an additional 1,200 acres. Eventually, Browning's firm, a subcontractor under Dewberry, which is conducting the mega-park's master plan for the Danville-Pittsylvania Regional Industrial Facilities Authority, will survey the entire 3,700-acre park.

John R. Crane is a staff writer for the Register and Bee of Danville.