Contacting NTMWD

Ginger and I had been shown where the Wilks Cemetery was by Mike Barbaro, and been given access to his land for our cemetery visits.  On some level we knew that the cemetery was, at that point, actually owned by North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD), but until construction started Mike seemed to remain in control of what had been his land and his permission to visit seemed relevant and sufficient to us.  After construction began, we knew that we had to gain the support of NTMWD if our project was to be successful.  And, as the clearing of the dam and basin area continued, the need to ask for that support became increasingly more urgent.  I had reached out early on to Larry Standlee, member of the Fannin County Historical Commission and local graveyard expert, for information about the Wilks Cemetery.  In mid-July, we learned from Larry that NTMWD would be presenting a petition to the Fannin County District Court regarding the removal of the remains - that, in fact, a court order was necessary to begin the disinterment process.  We attended that hearing and while waiting for it to begin were introduced, for the first time, to folks from NTMWD.  They were open, welcoming, and friendly, and we left the hearing optimistic about gaining official support for our project.  We also learned at that meeting that the removal would be handled by a professional bio-archaeology team under the direction of a respected professor in the discipline from SMU.  Having had no idea what to expect, we were relieved to learn of the detailed legal requirements and the great respect, care, and scientific rigor the team intended to bring to the relocation of the burial sites.

Judge Blake did not grant the court order at that hearing.  She asked for additional information and scheduled a follow-up hearing for August 1, 2018.  Ginger and I attended that followup hearing, and again were able to visit with NTMWD staff while waiting for the case to be called.  We met Cody Davis, the NTMWD consultant who is in charge of both the cemetery removals and the Riverby mitigation project, along with his colleague, Dr. Allen Skinner.  Cody talked to us about having worked on the reservoir project for close to ten years.  From him we learned a bit about the lab work and DNA analysis that will occur in the lab at SMU before the disinterred remains are reburied, work that would be especially important if any unmarked graves were found.  He also explained that the disinterment process itself would take weeks, perhaps months. 

Ginger and I left the hearing and drove out to Carson to check on the progress of construction. The images below are from that drive. They illustrate how quickly the area had changed from the beginning of June to the beginning of August, and perhaps evoke the sense of urgency Ginger and I were feeling. The pace of change was accelerating rapidly.

First sight of dam being built across from Mr Foreman’s land, photo by Ginger Sisco Cook.

Along FM1396 towards Carson, photo by Ginger Sisco Cook.

Along FM1396 towards Carson, photo by Ginger Sisco Cook.

Along FM1396 towards Carson, photo by Ginger Sisco Cook.

On CR2705, photo by Ginger Sisco Cook.

Tranquil still, photo by Ginger Sisco Cook.

Encouraged by the two casual visits we’d had with NTMWD staff and consultants at the hearings, Ginger and I drove to NTMWD headquarters in Wiley on Aug. 27, 2018 to discuss our project with Jeff McKito, Public Relations Specialist.  We laid out our vision and asked for permission to continue our work.  Jeff gave generously of his time, asked engaging questions, and seemed genuinely interested.  He asked for time to circulate our plans a bit internally and get back to us. We left feeling buoyed by a good meeting and a hopeful prospect. 

On Sept. 10, 2018, a Monday, we learned that the District would support our project.  We also learned that the disinterment would begin on Wednesday, Sept., 12, with the removal of the tombstones for safe keeping.  We were invited to go out to the Cemetery with Jeff on the 12th for our last visit to the intact site - the closing of an important chapter in our journey had arrived.

Story by Wanda Holmes Oliver.

The Day Reality Bit

Earlier in this series of stories, I recounted the ritual Ginger and I observed in early June of 2018 of decorating the graves in the Bonham and Wilks Cemeteries.  I mentioned that we were following in the path of rituals we had been a part of as children as our elders gathered at the cemetery to clean and decorate the family graves, but I did not mention another factor that prompted our own ritual.  Ginger and I were first introduced to the Wilks Cemetery at the end of March.  By the end of May, we had been spending nearly every Sunday morning there, taking pictures, videotaping the walk into, through, and out of the cemetery, drawing a schematic of the layout, making rubbings and impressions of the stones, and simply communing with one another, Mother Nature, and the departed.  We knew that construction of the Lake was imminent and we wanted to absorb the place into our souls while it was still intact.  In fact, on some level the lake remained a distant possibility for me.  Even though we had seen survey stakes since mid-April and orange fencing had gone up around the cemetery sites in late April, I could not fully grasp the concept of this glade giving way to a lake. 

First Sign - Wilks Cemetery, photo by Ginger Sisco Cook.

Survey Stakes Begin to Appear, photo by Wanda Holmes Oliver.

Orange Fencing Around Bonham Site, photo by Wanda Holmes Oliver.

On June 1, 2018, we drove out for a visit - it was a Friday, and I don’t recall why we had picked that day to go.  It must have simply fit our schedule for that week.  We went very early in order to beat the heat, arriving at Mike Barbaro’s gate just after 7am.  We immediately noticed what I thought was fog or mist wafting up just over the rise beyond Mike’s barn.  I thought it must be moisture rising from the pond that lay in that direction, but as we closed the gate and pulled up a bit further we gained a view to what it actually was.  It was smoke from smoldering piles of uprooted trees.  A great swath of land had been bulldozed.  The construction of the dam had begun in earnest.  The reality hit hard.  Suddenly the construction of the lake was not an abstract conjecture, but an overwhelming reality.

It Begins, photo by Wanda Holmes Oliver.

Side by Side, photo by Wanda Holmes Oliver.

In juxtaposition to the devastation cutting widely through the land, Mother Nature was unfurled in all her glory.  The wild flowers were beautiful, especially the Queen Anne’s Lace and Black Eyed Susan gracing the meadows.  We saw several skunks, a squirrel, a hawk, and a great blue heron.  A woodpecker was busy at work in a tree in the cemetery.  Birdsong surrounded us as we quietly worked.

Looking back toward Wilks Cemetery from Hillside, photo by Ginger Sisco Cook.

Wilks Cemetery Road, photo by Ginger Sisco Cook.

Road from Wilks Cemetery, photo by Ginger Sisco Cook.

Near Wilks Cemetery, photo by Ginger Sisco Cook.

In the car on the way home, Ginger suggested that we decorate the graves, and began to outline her ideas for doing so.  We were back on Sunday, June 3, with ribbon, stakes, wire, and tools, and with letters to the departed.  We gathered wildflowers from the meadows to make the bouquets, and used the staked bouquets to pin the letters to each grave.  It was our way of acknowledging that we had to say goodbye, and likely very soon.

Today, anyone driving along FM 1396 or CR 2700 is familiar with the clearing that has taken place in what will be the basin of Bois d’ Arc Lake and with the active construction of the dam.  That day in early June marked a pivot point in our story, and in the story of Fannin County.  As it turned out, we would continue to have unfettered access to the Cemetery until early September, much longer than we anticipated on that June morning, but we have had to say goodbye.  By early September, the close encroachment of heavy construction activities to the location of the cemetery made safety a legitimate concern, and the beginning of the disinterment made securing the site necessary.  Our visits since then have been at the gracious invitation of North Texas Municipal Water District - visits we’ll outline in upcoming posts.

Story by Wanda Holmes Oliver.

Finding the Cemetery

Ginger and I had been discussing the effort that became this project for several weeks when, on March 31, 2018, we set out to find the Wilks Family cemetery using directions from the Fannin County GenWeb site. We headed to Carson, turned onto County Road 2700 and began to try to match the instructions we had to the reality on the ground. “Turn on the lane by the large pipe fence” had sounded reasonable enough back in my kitchen, but turned out to be woefully insufficient. We made one detour, executing a multiple-point (more than three for sure) turn on a narrow lane once we realized it couldn’t possibly be right. Back on CR2700, we continued, looking left and right for clues. Up ahead a pick-up pulled up at a gate, waiting for us to pass before turning onto the county road. We decided to ask the young man driving if he could help us, and stopped to chat. He could not, but his friend, who pulled up behind him while we talked, could. In a moment of serendipity almost miraculous, we met Mike Barbaro, the owner of the property that contained the Cemetery. And he generously altered his plans on the spot to take us to see it.

Had we or they been a few seconds sooner or later in arriving at that point, we would have passed like ships in the night, and this project would have taken a completely different trajectory. We would never have stumbled onto the Cemetery by ourselves. It is in an out of the way location deep onto private property.

The cemetery is in a beautiful glade surrounded by an old fence of upright wooden staves, dotted heavily with irises, and crowned by a large lilac bush. The fence is falling down, and the underbrush threatens to take over, but on that first visit, the lilac bush was blooming and I found myself thinking about the love with which it had surely been planted. Now lonely and overgrown, the place had obviously figured importantly in the lives of these families. I felt a tenderness and fullness of heart towards the inhabitants of this lovely place. Feelings reinforced as we walked among the tombstones and realized how many of them marked the graves of infants and children. The people lying there took powerful hold of my imagination and I knew that I wanted to learn all that I could about them. As we shared our reactions driving home, we realized that we had been similarly affected. Our project began to take on more form and direction, and we knew that these families would become ours.

Story by Wanda Holmes Oliver.

All but Forgotten, Resting in Peace. Photo by Wanda Holmes Oliver.

Sprig of Wilks Cemetery Lilac on my Windowsill. Photo by Wanda Holmes Oliver.