"Grave hunters help to preserve history of state."

[Adsos Letter]

BRYANT - George Gatliff walked across a leaf-covered hill next to a strip mall and pressed his foot down on a small, partly buried rock.

"It's solid," the 78-year-old amateur archaeologist said, confident he'd found another spot in an unkept cemetery where Arkansas pioneers were laid to rest.

After five years of tramping around the backwoods of western Arkansas looking for abandoned cemeteries with his friend Meeks Etchieson, it takes little more than a slight depression in the dirt or a curiously placed rock to tell Gatliff he's on hallowed ground.

The two are grave hunters, out to record a bit of history and maybe even prevent it from being demolished by modern conveniences.

Along with other volunteers across the state who have the macabre-sounding hobby, the duo is an integral part of making sure that lost cemeteries are found and not forgotten, archaeologists said.

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