Aerial maps were the key to the location of the Lewellen Cemetery. I work
at the county surveyor's office and we have aerial maps of our county for
1939, 1947, 1960, 1968, 1976, 1989 and the latest 1999 are digital and the
GIS mapping dept. is working to map the deeds and such on top of the
photos. In the case of this cemetery, it was already being farmed over as
early as 1939, so it was just a clear field, but comparing photos over the
decades, I noticed a dark scar that kept appearing in the ground near where
the atlas indicated it was. Sure enough, after the private surveyors
staked out the anomalies, they did an overlay of the old aerials and it
fell directly on that spot. Even the 1999 aerial has a mark there. If it
wasn't for that mark, I may have never even looked at the other
aerials. Not all counties in Indiana may have these aerials or have them
readily available, so it's probably a good idea to call the county surveyor
or engineer and ask first.
Still would like some input on my right to remove question or the one about
denying access to a cemetery.
Cris West
cherokee(a)shelbynet.net
At 06:47 AM 05/25/2000 -0400, you wrote:
Another thought while researching for a cemetery....Our county
(Newton) has
the original set of aerial maps from the mid to late 1930's. These are the
maps that are made from pictures taken from an airplane. By comparing these
to ones from today, one might be able to locate an area such as a clump of
trees that was there 60 years ago but not there now. Depending on how good
the picture is, you might even see headstones if the area was clear of trees
and brush, or even the lane that was used to travel back to the cemetery. We
have an idea where a cemetery once was based on these maps. It is said the
farmer cleared the trees and began farming it. A look at the original aerial
map of his property shows a clump of trees in the middle of a corn field that
was gone by the time the next set of maps were flown.
Kyle D. Conrad
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