LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Unmarked graves have been found on the proposed Ford battery plant site in Hardin County, according to a survey launched by the Army Corps of Engineers.
What You Need To Know
- An archaeological survey shows evidence of 19 unmarked graves on the proposed Ford battery site
- The survey was a requirement of the Army Corps of Engineers
- In 2003, several marked grave sites were moved from the same area
- Nearby Glendale resident Delbert Best expects several graves belong to his descendants
The Army Corps of Engineers required Ford to conduct a survey at a site where marked remains were previously found and moved years ago. It was suspected there were additional unmarked graves on the Hardin County site near I-65 and Highway 222.
They concluded the survey in March and found evidence of 19 graves.
The property in question was formally part of Delbert Best’s family farm and sold by the family several years ago. Best and his surviving relatives live on the land still next to their former homestead.
“I’ve been over every inch of it,” Best said of the property.
The 77-year-old has long suspected there were additional grave sites near his former childhood home.
“As a kid, I knew there was more than one or two back there because I played there when I was a kid. I shot marbles on the cemetery hill,” he said.
That land is now part of the proposed Ford battery plant, but construction in that exact area is on hold. Delbert Best expects several of the unmarked graves to belong to his descendants.
In 2003, his great grandparents’ remains were moved from the area closer to the existing property line.
“My great grandpa, his grave and wife and kid were back there in that cemetery,” Best explained.
As far as who the other graves belong to, Best is unsure. At the Hardin County History Museum, Paul Urbahns said every year, unmarked family cemeteries are discovered on construction sites of any size or existing cemeteries are found to be much larger than originally thought.
“Since they probably did not have a tombstone, it being a family cemetery, and tombstones were very expensive in the olden days, those cemetery graves have basically been forgotten,” Urbahns said.
Regardless of who’s buried there, Delbert Best has volunteered his land as their new final resting place.
“My great grandpa was back there with them in the cemetery hill so we brought him up here so I’m going to bring the rest of them up too, put them all back together again.”
According to an Army Corps spokesperson, the identity of the newly discovered remains may never be known.