GRANTS LICK, Ky. — More than 100 years ago, a handful of people were buried in a small, private cemetery on land first owned by Newport's founder, Revolutionary War Lt. Col. James Taylor.

This gully along U.S. 27 contains an abandoned cemetery. (Patrick Reddy photos) | ZOOM |

        Their graves are now in the path of the growth spreading southward from the city.

        This fall, the state will unearth the remains that no one in the area has been able to identify and expand U.S. 27.

        Archeologists will spend more than $26,000 to trying to determine who is in the cemetery and when they were buried. The remains will be given to a funeral home for reburial.

        State officials say they try to avoid removing cemeteries for highway projects, but are less reluctant this time because nobody can identify who is buried there.

        The $58 million reconstruction of U.S. 27 will go from Ky. 154 near Grants Lick to one mile south of Ky. 10 in Pendleton County.

A tiny rock headstone marks one of the graves, marked by archeologists. (Patrick Reddy photos) | ZOOM |

        State officials say they try to avoid removing cemeteries for highway projects, but are less reluctant this time because nobody can identify who is buried there.

        “Unless we can show there's no other way, we need to try to avoid cemeteries,” said environmental coordinator Sharon Laycock, an environmental coordinator with the state Transportation Cabinet.

        She said the transportation cabinet's Northern Kentucky district has relocated three cemeteries in three years, in Bracken, Owen and Gallatin counties.

        The Taylor property, transferred to the Darlington family in 1868 and now owned by Harry and Dorothy Darlington, of Cold Spring, sits is near the intersection of U.S. 27 and Ky.entucky 154 intersection, just south of Fairlane Baptist Church.

        The Darlingtons, who approve of the state's excavation plans, say they have no idea who is buried in the cemetery.

        “We're pretty sure that my husband's grandfather leased that property to somebody, we don't know who, for 99 years,” said Mrs. Dorothy Darlington, 75, of Cold Spring, said.

        Ms. Laycock said archeologists believe there are probably two adults and three children buried in the cemetery.

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