LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) A big dig in downtown Lawrence has failed to unearth any unmarked graves from the Civil War.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports the excavation took place Monday on the future site of a multistory hotel and parking garage. The state archaeologist for Kansas, Bob Hoard, was on hand.
Hoard says the dig revealed some bones from cows and pigs, along with two cisterns and the outline of an old building.
In a 1903 master’s thesis, a University of Kansas student wrote that victims of Quantrill’s Raid were dumped in a trench on the property. But Hoard says he found no evidence an open trench ever existed.
Quantrill’s Raid took place in August 1863 when Confederate guerrillas invaded eastern Kansas and sacked Lawrence, killing most of the male population.
