30 June Ground Search- The Lee Site

After the 17 June 2023 ground search at the Grissom Site, I have shifted to searching the Lee Site only. I had some use or lose time, and decided to spend another day at Soda Fork. I got out there by a little after 8am and started with a more detailed site survey than I had completed on 15 May 2023.

I followed the same procedure I had employed previously at the Grissom Site. I sketch mapped the site, and located the trails and lines of drift leading from it. I noted that this time, the blackberry growth along the top of the berm had filled in about 80% of the back-top of the berm, effectively obscuring any trails that may have once been there. Thankfully the thicket is not mature, and is still passable in boots and heavy pants.

To me, this indicates that the vegetation has now obscured the topography that would have been visible in 1977. I still consider the bench noted on the 15 May site survey as a likely crime scene but not the only potential scene. I decided to section off the area I had previously identified and flagged as my search box for the day. I made my way to the bottom of the hill, surveying flags in hand and I began to mark debris piles, depressions and washes.

I spent from roughly 9am to 3pm bear crawling up the hill to the top of the berm and back. I would start at the outflow of a wash, go through the debris pile in its delta, then work my way up on my hands and knees, clearing leaves, lifting fern mats, going through woody debris. I can move relatively quickly, despite the terrain and vegetation. The types of remains I am looking for, especially after 46 years of weather exposure are the long bones and the heavy bones: radius, ulna, humerus, femur, tibia, fibia, lower mandible, skull, and to a lesser degree, vertebrae and ribs. Even in partial form, these bones are large and distinctive, and likely to survive.

I finished the search of the day’s area by about 230. It was about 89, sunny and I was physically spent by the exertion of crawling up the hill repeatedly. Before leaving for the day, I walked the top of the hill, behind the blackberry thicket. This was a preliminary survey of the remaining 80% of the site that I hadn’t walked previously. It’s a steep, wooded and rocky hillside, with a 60 foot drop over 0.05 miles to the Soda Fork creek bed.

My tentative plan to search the remaining terrain is to section the hill into lanes that can be searched in 8 hour increments. The search plan would remain the same- identify washes, depressions and lines of drift, and focus the search there for the long and heavy bones. In all honesty, I was feeling slightly down until I walked the top of the hill on this survey. After striking a dry well on the day’s search in the sun and the heat, I was feeling it. Then on the survey, I realized that I had barely scratched the total area at the Lee Site.

Stay optimistic. This is a long process with no set end. The work will be done when it is done.