County commissioners were appalled last month when members of the Ashe County Historical Society produced pictures of desecrated cemeteries in the Grassy Creek and Lansing areas. The cemeteries are located where land is being developed, and no effort is being made to protect the burial grounds or headstones. The pictures showed headstones tossed into a pile, broken and scattered. Graves had not been moved, and in some cases were destroyed.

Jerry Brown, president of the Historical Society, accompanied Lonnie Jones to the commission meeting to inform the board of these cemetery desecrations and to request the county’s assistance in creating a standardized record of deaths in the county. He said in some cases there had been no effort made to reclaim graves. One cemetery had been graded over and planted with Christmas trees. In another situation, he said he had heard of a landowner who had destroyed a cemetery to build his house and had pulled up and crushed the headstones to create a stone walkway to his house.

“Development is definitely something that’s going to happen, but this is unacceptable,” said Commissioner Gary Barber. He said it was a good idea to get the Historical Society and county planning board involved in the issue when Brown suggested a survey be done of who is being buried, where and when. Deaths and burials are recorded in different ways, and if there was a standard it would be easier to protect burial sites.

Jones told the commissioners there are over 700 cemeteries in Ashe, most on private property. Sometimes families have died out with descendants having moved away, and no one is tending a family cemetery. State law protects these cemeteries, he said, making it a felony to desecrate graves. It seems some developers are unaware of this protection, and he is hoping to raise awareness in the community.

“We know of several instances where destruction of graves and whole cemeteries has taken place,” said Jones. “This is simply an attempt to raise awareness in the county and with county government of the importance of these locations and to ask for an emphasis to be placed on protection of these cemeteries. State law is in place (G.S. 148 and 149) to protect these cemetery sites and the protection is left to the work of the local county governments to enforce. Most cemeteries in the county are cared for by families; many are not, and many are being lost here as well as across the state.”

Jones said there are counties in the state that have set up committees to work with local planning boards on this issue. GIS mapping of cemeteries has been done in a number of counties and others are doing historical surveys and preservation of cemeteries.

Commission Chairwoman Judy Poe asked Jones and Brown to create a list of potential members for a cemetery advisory board. County Manager Dan McMillan added that this advisory board could work with the planning board on some action regarding cemetery surveys and burial record standardization. A report will be brought back to the commissioners.