airplane taking off
Sarah Biren
Sarah Biren
October 1, 2024 ·  3 min read

This is Why Two People Are Buried in Graves at The Savannah Airport in The US

The Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport seems regular in every way, except for two graves beneath runway 10. The airport in Georgia, USA, was built on a former farm. It had once belonged to Catherine and Richard Dotson who were laid to rest on their land. Today, their names are engraved on the tarmac, forever remembered by people flying overhead.

Who was the Dotson Family?

Aerial view of the graves of Catherine and Richard Dotson at the Savannah Airport
Credit: Atlas Obscura

The Dotsons were farming pioneers and landowners. Richard and Catherine were both born in 1779, and were married for 50 years. During that time, the land was known as Cherokee Hills. Catherine died in 1877, and Richard followed only seven years later. When they passed, they were buried in the family cemetery that included at least 100 graves. According to Bonaventure Storyist Shannon Scott, the graves include slaves and former property workers. 

Turning the Farm into Savannah Airport

A view of the graves of Catherine and Richard Dotson at the Savannah Airport
Credit: Savannah Now

In 1942, the City of Savannah and the federal government negotiated a lease with the Dotson descendants to expand operations for the U.S. War Department. “Shortly after its acquisition, the federal government began a program of obtaining additional acreage to enlarge the facilities at Chatham Field, which had been designated as a command base and heavy bombardment combat crew training station for the second bomb wing of the Army Air Corps,” said officials from the Savannah/Hilton Airport. In other words, the military needed an airport to land its B-24 “Liberators” and B-17 “Flying Fortresses” with the approach of World War II.

Read More: Scary Theory Surfaces About Lars Mittank – The Man Who Ran Out of Airport Without Belongings Only To Disappear Forever

Transferring over 100 Graves

SAVANNAH, GA -3 MAY 2020- View of a CRJ900 Bombardier regional jet airplane from American Eagle at the Savannah Hilton Head international airport (SAV) serving Georgia and South Carolina.
Source: Shutterstock

The descendants of the Dotsons negotiated a deal to relocate all but four of the graves to Bonaventure Cemetery. Meanwhile, Richard and Catherine remained “in and next to the airport’s most active runway,” according to airport officials, “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.” 

Two More Graves

The graves of John Dotson and Daniel Hueston near the runway
Credit: Savannah Hilton Head International Airport

Two other graves stayed, those of their relatives John Dotson and Daniel Hueston, who are located in the shrub not far from the busy runway. The descendants had refused to allow those graves to be transferred. As the matriarch and patriarch of their family, Richard and Catherine would have wished to remain in the land they had worked on for most of their lives. 

Read More: Man Collapses in Airport, then Strangers Realize He’s Going Home to the Last People He Expects

Members of the Savannah Airport Family

The graves of Catherine and Richard Dotson at the Savannah Airport
Credit: Savannah Hilton Head International Airport

Since it was illegal to transfer graves without permission from the family, construction paved over the graves and laid two flat headstones to mark the location. According to Shannon Scott, graves under the airport suit the city. “To me, that is sort of the quintessential Savannah: A city built on top of its own dead.” 

A spokesperson told FOX Weather that the Dotsons had become “members of the airport family.” Moreover, most of the pilots and crew are aware of the graves and have heard of the ghost stories about the planes that land and take off from runway 100.

One of America’s Most Haunted Cities

A dirt road leads through the tombstones and Spanish moss-covered trees in the creepy Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia, USA
Source: Shutterstock

Savannah falls among Salem and New Orleans when it comes to haunted cities in the United States, and the Dotsons’ graves are only the tip of the iceberg. Haunted sites are everywhere. For instance, there are the soldiers who died during the Siege of Savannah during the American Civil War. People also believe that the spirits of the victims of the 1820 Yellow Fever epidemic as well as deadly fires remain where they had perished. Additionally, there are countless stories of the ghosts of slaves seeking vengeance against their captors, as well as victims haunting their murderers. Many tours around Savannah are based on these reportedly supernatural sites, and for some tourists, the spooks begin as soon as their plane hits the tarmac.

Read More: After Having a 9-Year Sexual Relationship With a Plane, Woman Breaks Up With It

Sources

  1. Dotson Family Cemetery.Savannah Hilton Head International Airport
  2. Dotson Runway Graves.Atlas Obscura. November 6, 2014
  3. That’s So Savannah: What’s up with the runway graves at the Savannah/Hilton Head airport?Savannah Now. Christopher Berinato. April 28, 2021
  4. Why is Savannah one of America’s Most Haunted Cities?” Savannah
  5. “Graves Cemented In Savannah Airport Runway Honor Farmers’ History.Patch. Amanda Lumpkin. March 14, 2024