Monday, January 30, 2012
Police beat Archeologist: dig today didn't uncover grave of Glasgow
Posted by David Koon on Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 3:42 PM
The archeologist who helped oversee a dig today in the field off Highway 161 where a Faulkner County Jail inmate claimed Little Rock businessman John Glasgow is buried said that today's dig into three locations in the field pinpointed as the best possible locations for a grave turned up only two ancient American Indian sites and buried pieces of more modern metal.
more info on the jump...
The Arkansas Archeological Survey scanned the field on Old Dirt Road near Clear Lake last Thursday with a ground-penetrating radar unit, which can look for disturbances in the soil up to 6 feet deep. Dr. Elizabeth Horton, the station archeologist at Toltec Mounds State Park, said that the scan turned up three anomalies in the earth which "were the ones that have the highest confidence of being significant."
Investigators spent this morning digging in the field today with a backhoe in the three locations while two archeologists from the Arkansas Archeological Survey looked on, but didn't turn up evidence of a grave.
"The anomalies that Dr. Lockhart's equipment picked up in two cases turned out to be prehistoric features," Horton said, "which was a worry that we had to begin with because we knew we were working in and area where we'd had a prehistoric occupation. The other was probably related to some bits and pieces in the field that were just agricultural debris."
Horton said the three sites were the only ones that the scan showed had a possibility of being significant within the area surveyed. Asked whether the LRPD planned to return to conduct more radar testing in the field, she said that's a question for the police.
Comments (11)
Showing 1-11 of 11
They need to get someone who can do grave "witching." Don't laugh. It's done. I've seen it. Works every time.
like
dislike
Hook up a plow to the inmate con man who fabricated this lie and tell him to either find the grave or recant his story.
And then add 5 years to his sentence for the added anguish to the Glasgow family.
Isn't providing false information to the police a prosecutable offense?
This means that the info provided to the authorities was false. I am completely stunned by this turn of events.
We called it "disturbance dowsing," Cato. With a class of 30 plus students at OSU, working both blindfolded (the dowser) and with vision, two clipped and rebent coat hangers repeatedly accurately detected buried wells, pipes and old foundations.
It also worked in locating long buried storm sewer lines in remodeling pre-1920's Tulsa Parks.
You are correct about the accuracy, too. We never got a proven explanation for why it works, but geologists and physicists at OSU theorized that excavation perturbs the normal dipole magnetic alignment of soil and subsoil particles. Theoretically and from the field experiences, the perturbation lasts detectably for over one hundred years.
dot, thanks for that information as to how it works. I have asked over and over of people who do this and no explanation is forthcoming. Your info sounds as good as any. I know grave seekers find unidentified graves for cemeteries, most often those of babies buried long ago with no markers of any kind placed at their burial place. I admit being skeptical when first introduced to this phenomena but I'm a believer after seeing it over and over again.
Dowsing has been proven a clever mind trick time and time that relies upon the gullibility of the user time and time again (http://www.uiowa.edu/~osa/burials/Dowsing.…).
If these perturbations actually exist, shouldn't a far more sensitive instrument--say, a $2 Boy Scout compass--be a vastly superior tool to use?
(Not sure what happened with the structure of that last sentence, but I think the content comes through . . .)
Yeah, dowsing makes no sense specifically because the rods are not magnetic, and the ground features are in no way magnetic. I doubt that most soil has detectable magnetic properties unless you are in an area full of magnetite or other slightly magnetic rocks. So the question becomes, why do two clipped and bent wire hangers held in the hand detect what a compass, which is sensitive enough to detect the earths magnetic field, isn't even fazed by. Can you make a hand held device similar to a compass that works via the dowsing rod principle that would in fact detect the same thing? It could have two little bent metal rods inserted in holes in a box so they could rotate freely and thus remove the question of whether or not the rods are being directed by the hands of the wielder.
My grandson was a non-believer. After a demonstration and his attempt at the same he is now a bona fide believer with questions like the rest of us.
The inmate's story only got traction after Conway lawyer Frank (Count 'Em 9 Ethics Calldowns) Shaw went on teevee and said not only did he know where the body was buried, he knew who did the killin'.
More by Author
-
Captain removed from plane after mid-air freakout
CNN has video of panic in the air as the captain of a JetBlue airliner en route from New York to Las Vegas apparently had some kind of psychotic episode in mid-flight today, forcing the co-pilot to lock him out of the cockpit.
- Mar 28, 2012
-
Spring Arts 2012
Your guide to upcoming art, movies, music and theater.
- Mar 7, 2012
- More »
Event Calendar
-
Re: The Long Weekend, Post-Election Edition
Well, Max, I'm all cheered up after listening to your election analysis. Thanks a lot.
…- on May 25, 2012
-
Re: N.C. businessman pays a price for support of gay rights
25-May 2007 Handbills distributed in Harrison warning about corruption of local culture, specifically blasting FedEx…
- on May 25, 2012
-
Re: N.C. businessman pays a price for support of gay rights
I have been polling my clients at the slightly illegal mobile adult beverage emporium at…
- on May 25, 2012
Top Commenters
Blogroll
Slideshows
-
Police close the Occupy Little Rock camp, perhaps the last Occupy encampment on public land.
Site Index
News
Cover Story / Arkansas Reporter / The Week That Was / Smart Talk / The Insider / The Observer / Editorial / Max Brantley / Ernest Dumas / Gene Lyons / Bob Lancaster / Words / Guest Writer / Letters
Entertainment
A&E Feature / To-Do List / In Brief / Movie Reviews / Music Reviews / Theater Reviews / A&E News / Art Notes / Graham Gordy / Books / Media / Dining Reviews / Dining Guide / What's Cookin' / Calendar / The Televisionist / Movie Listings / Gallery Listings
This Week's Cover
Quick Links
Special Publications
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
