Thanks to the technology of ground penetrating radar (GPR), the City of Tyler’s Historic Oakwood Cemetery’s past is becoming better known.

Oakwood Cemetery has been home to unmarked graves in several areas of the historic cemetery, but thanks to a grant from Historic Tyler Incorporated, many of those gravesite have been confirmed. In total, 179 previously unmarked graves have been located, marked and surveyed.

The Oakwood Cemetery Restoration Committee, operating under the City of Tyler’s Park and Recreation Department, received two grants totaling $5,000 from Historic Tyler Inc. in 2015. $3,000 was used to hire Wood Inspection Services of Double Oak, Texas, to locate graves using a ground penetrating radar machine in the cemetery.

The remaining $2,000 grant will supplement several monument repairs needed at the cemetery, including marking unmarked graves found in the process.

Stan Wood of Wood Inspection Services began scanning the cemetery on Monday, July 11, and finished the contracted areas on Wednesday, July 13. Oakwood Cemetery has a very rich history. Established in 1846 as a land grant, stipulations required five acres to be dedicated as a cemetery. Oakwood’s oldest marked grave is dated 1852.

To save money, families would often purchase family lots to bury their loved ones in the same area to save on the cost of headstones. Many of those graves are unmarked.

Being more than 150 years old, Oakwood faces typical wear and tear from exposure. Head stones once made of thin marble easily fracture, get sucked into the dirt and deteriorate over time, leaving many previously marked graves unmarked on the five acre lot.

The Oakwood Cemetery Restoration Committee’s only source of funding are proceeds from its annual Spirts of Oakwood Walking Tour of the Cemetery during Tyler’s Azalea Trails each spring.

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