Finding the bodies ... in a more intentional manner

It is said that veteran reporters know where the bodies are buried. In downtown Charleston, that's easy.

They're buried everywhere.

Don't just take my word for it. Michael Trinkley, executive director of the Chicora Foundation Inc. just finished a two-year study of South Carolina's oldest settled area and has produced a new book on the topic.

"The peninsula is one huge graveyard," he says.

His work, "The Silence of the Dead: Giving Charleston Cemeteries a Voice" compiles almost 200 known burial sites, complete with maps, historical descriptions and other records.

Some are obvious, such as the cemeteries found next to the city's historic churches, but about one-third of the book's burial grounds have no surviving stone markers, fencing or other visible remnants.

The vault and tomb of early settler Landgrave West is typical. It sits anonymously somewhere in the middle of the residential block formed by Bogard and Spring streets between Rutledge and Ashley avenues.

Trinkley says the Columbia nonprofit launched this work because he was tired of reading accounts where graves were discovered -- or uncovered -- by those who failed to do the most basic research on the land.

The book has been distributed to local libraries, the city and preservation groups to serve as an easy way for builders and developers to determine if their property might contain graves.

"I hope people take advantage of it," he says. "It might not answer all the questions. It might not even be 100 percent accurate, but it would be a first check and a cheap check."

The list doesn't even include White Point Garden, where legend says the city fathers buried pirates' bodies.

"We too have heard those stories, but they weren't anything that we were able to track down," Trinkley says.

And it doesn't include as many as 50 or so farm cemeteries that Trinkley knows once existed on the peninsula but long since have been obscured by time.

Trinkley says the issue extends beyond keeping burial grounds sacred. The tens of thousands buried in Charleston also can provide an irreplaceable way for scientists to learn about the city's earlier residents, provided their descendents consent to such study.

"The dead have an incredible opportunity to teach the living," he says. "They have the ability to give us information we can't get from any other source."

To get a sense of the problem Trinkley's addressing, just in the past decade:

• The College of Charleston came across graves while building its new library on Calhoun Street.

• About 90 sets of human remains were found during work on the new Burke High School.

• The city Housing Authority's plans for apartments on a Reid Street lot were delayed after bone fragments were found during site work.

During the 2002 re-internment ceremony for the Burke remains, one speaker said, "We've got to make sure that these things never happen again in our community, where individuals are not respected and not allowed to live and die with dignity."

Trinkley couldn't agree more.

Of note

Two noteworthy happenings are on tap at 7 p.m. Thursday:

• First, the College of Charleston's Historic Preservation and Community Planning program will present Mayor Joe Riley with its first Albert Simons Medal of Excellence (for Civic Design). The presentation will take place in Room 309 of the Simons Center, with a reception to follow.

• Second, the Revolution on2Wheels lecture series will wrap up inside the American Theatre on King Street with a talk by longtime Charleston cycling advocate Don Sparks, followed by a panel discussion about the state of local cycling. Both events are free and open to the public.

Robert Behre may be reached at 937-5771 or by fax at 937-5579. His e-mail address is rbehre@postandcourier.com, and his mailing address is 134 Columbus St., Charleston, SC 29403.