The Santa Clara Cemetery is working to mark almost 500 unmarked graves that were found using ground penetrating radar.
The Silver City Sun-News reports that the Village of Santa Clara was prompted to investigate their burial grounds after people searching for family members had been unable to find them. In all, they identified 1,397 burials.
Village of Santa Clara officials say records had not been kept correctly since the cemetery opened. A few years ago the boy scouts helped identify some graves by marking them down according to headstones. But some families had not paid for headstones, leaving piles of rocks or wooden crosses to mark graves.
Mayor Richard Bauch says they will make metal crosses to identify the unmarked graves and hope family members help identify them.
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