Kirkwood class project builds precise maps of Oak Hill Cemetery

CEDAR RAPIDS — Deep in an Iowa winter, the past generations slumber in Oak Hill Cemetery. The snow-covered hillside bears names found on parks, streets and industry buildings: Greene, Douglas, Sinclair, Cherry, Collins. In the past, many community members knew a little about the vast history within the Oakhill plots–but only a little.

A classproject at Kirkwood Community College is methodically turning the whereabouts of these historic burial sites into a technically accurate database. Year by year, teams of students are using satellite technology mixed with local lore and faded records, turning college coursework into a valued vault of information. By the hundreds, these family plots are being mapped to their exact Earthly locations—often precise to the width of a gravedigger’s hand.

The project is a joint effort between students in Kirkwood GIS Instructor Gail Brown’s Managing GIS Projects course and Oak Hill Cemetery staff. In 2009 one of Brown’s students approached the Oak Hill supervisors with the idea of using the cemetery grave sites as a practical way of putting the precision of GPS/GIS technologies to work in an area of public interest.

“I gave the student a tour of Oak Hill, and it was obvious just how big a project it would be,” Oak Hill Superintendent Carl Thoresen said. “The whole cemetery takes up 38 acres, with more than 10,000 graves. It became clear after that visit that they might take on a small section to start with.” 

The 2009 GIS class did plot a beginning section of the cemetery, focusing on one of the oldest and most historic portions. In addition to cataloging the famous and lesser-known names and dates, the students took note of broken or partial stones and other details helpful to cemetery staffers.

Kirkwood GIS student Hannah Overton (upper right) and fellow team members record information from a gravestone in Oak Hill Cemetery.

The 2010 fall class recently completed their section, performing the same careful record keeping and cataloging process. Students note that the GPS coordinates of each burial plot are accurate to within six inches.

Hannah Overton is one of the 2010 GIS students who worked on the Oak Hill mapping team. She said that sometimes the project “brought shivers,” but more from the weather than their surroundings.

“At times I was shivering so badly my handwriting was nearly indecipherable!” she said. “Afterward, we were glad to have finished such a big part of the project.”

As the site superintendent, Thoresen calls the project very important to current and future generations.

“I handle many requests from people in all parts of the country. They come here on a daily basis, looking for family members at Oak Hill or just seeking out historic figures. This work can only make our jobs easier,” Thoresen said.

Brown says the fieldwork and classwork blend into wonderful hands-on learning that has many benefits.

One of the many military veterans' headstones catalogued by Kirkwood GIS students in Oak Hill Cemetery.

For Overton, her classroom work and the cemetery-mapping project have solidified her career goals. The 2009 Vinton-Shellsburg High School grad says the technology meshes well with her interests in graphics and visual arts. Overton plans to transfer to the University of Northern Iowa.

“My four-year degree will be focused on the business applications of GIS. I’m surprised more people don’t know about GIS and opportunities in the field. I would love to see more awareness of the major,” she said.