Search for graves at Lookout Mountain

LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN (WDEF)- Carrington Montague has lived on Lookout Mountain for years and one of the things that has always caught his attention was a likely, mostly unmarked, graveyard.

“I’ve always wondered who buried people here. Was it a church, was it an organization, was it a community,” said Montague.

There are a few tombstones, including one from 1899.

“I’m thinking that this was, obviously after the Civil War but, before World War I. That era really wasn’t that long ago and we’ve forgotten history completely,” said Montague.

He thinks there are multiple people buried in the town-owned land and enlisted the help of Vanderbilt University.

“We have Geo Servicing Equipment, a ground-penetrating radar, that’s what we’re going to be using. You might’ve seen something like it on CSI. They are looking for dead bodies. We’re doing something similar but looking for graves,” said Natalie Robbins.

“A friend of mine found 12 to 15 sites that he thinks are potential graves. I think there are probably twice that,” said Montague.

They want to make sure history is persevered and those buried on the land are properly respected.

“It’s something that keeps your heritage going in the backstory of the actual city. What history went through and where we are today,” said  Rob Bentley.

“Well, I think we lose something when we lose our history, we lose part of our heritage. We have the Chief John Ross Bridge in downtown Chattanooga and everybody calls it the Market Street Bridge. It’s not, it’s the Chief John Ross Bridge,” said Montague.

The Survey will be done over the next two days and it will be a few weeks until the results are completed.

“This type of geophysical survey works, a lot goes into it on the backend. Obviously, we’re out here putting our boots on the ground but after we’re done collecting the data here it will be a few week-long process in which we process the data in the lab and that’s where we actually get any results,” said Robbins.