For the past 49 years, thousands of students and NC State fans alike have unknowingly passed by and through a grave site on their way to cheering on the WolfPack at Carter-Finley Stadium.
Last month, 12 unmarked graves, which were situated on a wooded hill just outside the stadium near gate six, were excavated and re-interred at Oakwood Cemetery.
“It is really interesting to think of where [the graves] were,” said Robin Simonton, executive director at Oakwood Cemetery. “I am just intrigued by the fact that the players walked through that area to get to the practice field, and also by all the people that have cut through that area to get inside the stadium.”
Records of a gravesite in this location first appeared in 1938. Some of the graves contained shards of broken glass, indicating that the coffins were likely covered with glass— a style that predated the Civil War, according to Simonton.
“That give us the clue that they, at the latest, were buried in the 1850s or 1860s,” Simonton said.
Field investigations to locate the unmarked burials were conducted in November of last year. It was initially estimated that only five people were located in this area; however, upon excavation, it was discovered that seven additional graves had to be relocated.
“[The excavators] dig down until they see remains and dirt discoloration, which is typically in the shape of a coffin,” Simonton said. “In this case, there were a lot of skulls and a lot of jaws. All of these remains and discolored soil was brought with them here.”
After the graves were excavated, remains and discolored dirt were put into open 16 by 24 inch pine boxes and moved to Oakwood Cemetery where the graves were re-interred in the order in which they were found.
“We don’t put lids on the new coffins,” Simonton said. “They have obviously been through a very disruptive process so we try not to put them in anything that is unnatural. They go back to the ground which they came from.”
Once the ground settles at the new burial site in Oakwood Cemetery, a monument that says exactly where the graves came from and when they were moved, will be placed next to the site, according to Simonton.
The monument will also disclose that the identities of the individuals who were relocated from the Carter-Finley grave site are unknown.
“It is kind of a guessing game at this point,” Simonton said. “Since we there was never any direct documentation that makes us think that it was perhaps people that don’t usually show up in documentation, such as slaves.”
Simonton said that given its proximity to the former location of the AME church; she believes this grave site could have been used for slaves.
“Hopefully one day, someone will come forward with new family records, or a family Bible and we will be able to piece the history back together,” Simonton said.
These graves were relocated because the WolfPack Club has intentions of creating a path through the old grave site area.
The burial site is not the first to appear near Carter-Finley Stadium. In March of last year, a cemetery, which was positioned just northeast of the stadium, was claimed by and relocated to the Lincolnville AME Church’s cemetery just off of RBC Center Rd.
This first relocation was made before the construction for NC State’s new indoor practice facility.
While the 12 people that were relocated last month will no longer be alongside the thousands of fans expected to cheer on the Wolfpack this football season, they are still in good NC State company as their new burial site is just a stone’s throw away from burial sites of Jim Valvano, former head basketball coach and Lorenzo Charles, former NC State basketball player.
“We can only hope they were state fans,” Simonton said.
