Graves Cemented In Savannah Airport Runway Honor Farmers' History

SAVANNAH, GA — They lived a life of farming, and now in their death, they greet thousands at the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport.

During their days on Earth, Richard and Catherine Dotson were farming pioneers and landowners, Fox 28 Savannah reported. Catherine Dotson died in 1877, seven years before Richard Dotson died.

They have now spent several years being buried in graves under Runway 10, their names forever cemented on the tarmac.

According to the Savannah airport, a lease negotiation was made in 1942 between the City of Savannah and the federal government to expand military operations. Airport officials said the U.S. War Department needed additional facilities at the time.

"Shortly after its acquisition, the federal government began a program of obtaining additional acreage to enlarge the facilities at Chatham Field, which had been designated as a command base and heavy bombardment combat crew training station for the second bomb wing of the Army Air Corps," airport officials said.

The Dotson family cemetery, which consisted of at least 100 graves, was included in the purchase, airport officials said.

Great grandchildren of the Dotsons negotiated a deal with the federal government that resulted in the relocation of all but four of the graves to Bonaventure Cemetery, airport officials said.

Bonaventure Storyist Shannon Scott told Fox 28 that the graves included slaves and former property workers.

Richard and Catherine Dotson, along with relatives Daniel Hueston and John Dotson, continue resting "in and next to the airport's most active runway," airport officials said.

"These grave sites are the only ones in the world embedded in an active 9,350-foot runway serving thousands of general and commercial aviation operations yearly," airport officials said.

Travelers told Fox 28 that the burials add to the mystery, sacredness and spookiness of Savannah.

"To me, that is sort of the quintessential Savannah: A city built on top of its own dead," Shannon Scott told the outlet.

For the Savannah airport, a spokeswoman told FOX Weather the Dotsons have become members of the "airport family."