Did you know there is an airport where two people are buried underneath an active runway?
When you think of the typical place to bury a dearly departed relative, the first place which springs to mind is a cemetery, a place where generations of people have laid their loved ones to rest.
Or perhaps you're thinking about the more modern way of laying a person to rest: cremation, followed by scattering their ashes in a place that holds personal significance.
Whatever you're thinking of, one of the last places that likely came to mind was likely an airport runway.
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And yet there is one airport in the US which doubles up as a final resting place for four people, two of which lie under an active runway.
So why is this?
Upon first glance, Hilton Head Airport in Savannah, Georgia, doesn't look peculiar or out of the ordinary.
However, if you look more closely at the edges of runways 10 and 28, you will see two memorials built into the concrete.
These are the graves of a couple named Catherine and Richard Dotson.
Why are Catherine and Richard Dotson buried under an airport runway?
Long before the concept of an airport even existed, the Dotsons ran a working farm in the area known as the Cherokee Hills.
Both born in 1797, they were together for 50 years of marriage before Catherine's passing in 1877, while Richard followed in 1884.
And, as with customs of the time, the 19th-century couple were buried on their land, next to one another.
As for the two graves nearby, these belonged to Daniel Hueston and John Dotson, as the area of land used to function as a burial ground for the family. It's estimated that around 100 graves existed in this area at one point, which included family members and slaves who worked on the land.
Two decades after the couple were both dead and buried, the Wright brothers would successfully fly the world's first plane. Fast forward to World War II, and the land was eyed up as a place for the US military to land their B-24 ‘Liberators’ and B-17 ‘Flying Fortresses’.
After choosing the land which previously made up the Dotsons' farm, it was decided the graves would be moved to Bonaventure Cemetery – excluding the above exceptions.
This is because their descendants wouldn’t consent to their graves being moved, and believed that Catherine and Richard would want to stay put on the land that they had put so much hard work into for decades.
So, there was no choice left but to have the area paved over their graves, so that a runway could be set up. There are now two concrete rectangles built into the runway with plaques for both Catherine and Richard, which can be seen by passengers taxiing onto the runway.
"These grave sites are the only ones in the world embedded in an active 9,350 foot runway serving thousands of general and commercial aviation operations yearly," the airport added of the graves.
Brenna Cooper