Buried Secrets

It was a flood of biblical proportion rampaging for two months, cutting a swath across 9 Midwestern states killing 50 people and destroying or damaging 55,000 homes. Hardin, Missouri, population a little over 600, was a small, close-knit farming community. Residents watched over each other and their history by taking exceptional care of the local cemetery where their ancestors rested.

rom as early as 1876, there were rumors of ghosts inhabiting the building that now houses the Cincinnati Symphony, so when a night watchman would tell of his sightings nearly 100 years later, many thought he was just adding to lore. But then in 1988 when construction workers were working in one of the elevator shafts, they uncovered hundreds of pounds of skeletal remains in an underground crypt.

In November 1873, a party of 21 prospectors left Salt Lake City and headed towards the mountains. Two months later, they arrived at the Ute Indian encampment where they were urged to wait out the winter. After two weeks, 6 men including 23-year old Alferd Packer who acted as their guide, decided to try to make it to an Indian agency 75 miles away. 65 days later, only Alferd Packer arrived.

Guatemala for nearly 36 years was also a country ripped apart by a brutal civil war between the military government and the rural Mayan population. In 1996, the United Nations brokered the final cease-fire. Mass graves now mar the countryside and efforts sanctioned by the present government have been underway to uncover, identify and properly rebury the dead.