Judge delays cemetery relocation project near Kansas City airport

~ The city's Aviation Department wants to consolidate five cemeteries to clear the way for development.

PLATTE CITY, Mo. -- The relocation of five homestead cemeteries on Kansas City International Airport property must wait until a legal guardian for the cemeteries can be appointed, a judge has ruled.

The city's Aviation Department wants to consolidate the cemeteries to clear the way for development.

But descendants of the pioneers buried there have raised concerns about the possibility of unmarked graves, perhaps those of slaves, although city officials do not believe such graves exist.

"Somehow it has become a local myth that there is a slave cemetery there," said archaeologist Craig Sturdivant, hired by the city for the relocation project.

On Friday, Platte County Circuit Judge Abe Shafer said he would appoint a guardian before ruling on the Aviation Department's consolidation request.

Olin Miller, a Platte City resident who testified against the consolidation request, praised Shafer's ruling.

"The unknown folks, whether they were slaves or not, they're not going to be forgotten," Miller said.

Miller would rather the cemeteries be left alone.

"Some folks don't care," he said. "But others care intensely that the first folks' graves should be cared for and honored."

Burials in the cemeteries began in the early 1800s, and they continued to serve as family burial grounds for decades.

Heather Brown, an attorney for the city, said officials want to move those buried in the cemeteries to a site south of the airport. One cemetery lies in the path of a racetrack project scheduled to begin this year, she said.

"We are charged with maintaining the revenue of the airport," Brown said, "and we are charged with maintaining the safety of the passengers."

The city would pay for the guardian, she said.

David Long, the airport's assistant director for properties and commercial development, said no city projects would be delayed.

"I think this is an educational thing more than it is a pure dispute," Long said.

More than 40 people attended Friday's hearing, some of them carrying divining rods they said they had used to find unmarked graves.

That process is not considered scientific.

Miller, meanwhile, believes that rows of native red rocks near one of the cemeteries were used as headstones for slaves.

Sturdivant countered that the rocks could have ended up in that location through erosion.