SAVANNAH, Ga. Amidst the hustle and bustle of aviation activity at Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport in Georgia, passengers aboard planes might be unaware that they are rolling over generations of history buried beneath one of the runways.
The graves of Richard and Catherine Dotson, alongside those of their family members Daniel Hueston and John Dotson, are situated 6 feet under the tarmac, undisturbed to this day, according to aviation authorities. Notably, Richard and Catherine Dotson’s gravestones mark the path of Runway 10, the airport’s busiest runway.
“The families wished for the graves to remain in place when the westward extension of this east to west runway was required during World War II,” the airport states on its website.
These graves stand as the only ones in the world embedded in an active 9,350-foot runway, serving as a silent testament to history amidst the daily comings and goings of thousands of general and commercial aviation operations each year, as confirmed by airport officials.
“We consider the Dotsons to be part of our airport family, and we’re happy to have markers honoring them as an important part of our history,” remarked airport spokeswoman Lori Lynah to FOX Weather. “It’s always interesting to hear about pilots and passengers alike who’ve heard about the graves and want to learn more about their story.”
Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport, though classified as a small-sized airport, stands as the second largest of Georgia’s nine commercial airports, following Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
The Dotson Family Farm, a site steeped in history, once occupied the space where the airport now stands. Originally known as Cherokee Hills in the 1800s, the farm was owned by the Dotson family, whose remaining grave markers now lie on the western half of the airport’s grounds.
In 1942, the U.S. War Department sought additional facilities for expanding military operations, leading to the acquisition of the land where the airport stands today. This move marked the beginning of a transformation for Chatham Field into a command base and heavy bombardment combat crew training station for the second bomb wing of the Army Air Corps.
As part of this expansion, the Dotson family’s private cemetery was acquired. It was believed to have contained over 100 graves. Subsequently, negotiations between the Dotson family’s great-grandchildren and the federal government led to the relocation of all but four ancestors to Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, according to airport records.
Gary P Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
