Ground penetrating radar

[Mark-VA]

I have a close friend who is a Vietnam vet. He has been working on the Jennings cemetery where he knows there are many unmarked graves from years past. His desire is to set a grave marker with a "J" over each unmarked grave before is own passing. He attempted to hire a person with ground penetrating radar to mark areas where the ground has been disturbed but the cost was out of his reach. He hired a man to dowse the area but only found a couple areas. He ask me to come and dowse the areas and see if I got the same results at the prior person did (I'm no dowser but I have tried it a few times with 50/50 success rate. He has been working on this major project for several decades and historical records over 150 years ago are almost non-existent. I'm willing to help him if at all possible but I guess I need ideas.
Can you actually rent a ground penetrating device that would locate disturbed ground?

[Carl-NC]

You can rent a GPR if you can find someone who has them. Most rental places (even those who specialize in utility service equipment) don't have them because they require training to operate. If you do find a GPR rental, expect to take a while just learning how to use it. But GPR is probably the right tool for the job. If it were me, I would try to find someone who uses GPR in their job, and hang out with them for a while to learn how to use it. Then try to rent something. BTW, after 150 yrs disturbed soil won't look disturbed. You'll probably be looking for buried evidence. Dowsing won't work in this situation because dowsing doesn't work in any situation.

[Mark-VA]

Thanks Carl

[MDfanatic]

Dowsing won't work in this situation because dowsing doesn't work in any situation.

Don't be absolute on matters you can not fully understand.

LRLs don't work in any situation (although the pistol detector is among the very few exceptions - with it's flaws) but dowsing always works, if the dowser is competent and realistic of his/her capabilities and expectations.

I've worked in an utility company and I've saved the company millions worth of money in damages by simply walking around with 2 L-shaped galvanized wires from an old fence, pinpointing underground pipes and power cables.
Most of my co-workers laughed at me at first but when they hit 2 power lines in a row with a bulldozer (just right under my X marks) they changed their mind about dowsing and "bull$hit science".

Although dowsing for gold or metals is completely different than dowsing for water pipes or power lines, it's just wrong to cancel dowsing as a whole just because you stumbled upon people who had no idea what they where doing.

[Qiaozhi]

Don't be absolute on matters you can not fully understand.

LRLs don't work in any situation (although the pistol detector is among the very few exceptions - with it's flaws) but dowsing always works, if the dowser is competent and realistic of his/her capabilities and expectations.

I've worked in an utility company and I've saved the company millions worth of money in damages by simply walking around with 2 L-shaped galvanized wires from an old fence, pinpointing underground pipes and power cables.
Most of my co-workers laughed at me at first but when they hit 2 power lines in a row with a bulldozer (just right under my X marks) they changed their mind about dowsing and "bull$hit science".

Although dowsing for gold or metals is completely different than dowsing for water pipes or power lines, it's just wrong to cancel dowsing as a whole just because you stumbled upon people who had no idea what they where doing.

Please note that we no longer discuss LRLs or dowsing in the Geotech forums. If you want to discuss these "non-working" devices and their associated psuedo-science, then go to https://www.longrangelocators.com/forums/.

Basic Rules of the Forums

[MDfanatic]

Thank you for the reminder George and happy New Year (although I wasn't trying to discuss about LRLs or dowsing as it's a subject for other forums, just stating my facts)

[Altra]

I have a close friend who is a Vietnam vet. He has been working on the Jennings cemetery where he knows there are many unmarked graves from years past. His desire is to set a grave marker with a "J" over each unmarked grave before is own passing. He attempted to hire a person with ground penetrating radar to mark areas where the ground has been disturbed but the cost was out of his reach. He hired a man to dowse the area but only found a couple areas. He ask me to come and dowse the areas and see if I got the same results at the prior person did (I'm no dowser but I have tried it a few times with 50/50 success rate. He has been working on this major project for several decades and historical records over 150 years ago are almost non-existent. I'm willing to help him if at all possible but I guess I need ideas.
Can you actually rent a ground penetrating device that would locate disturbed ground?

It's a noble project that your friend is attempting.

I would suggest that he get quotes for a complete survey of the site. Both GPR and a LIDAR drone survey. He could then do a go fund me campaign to raise money.

Also he should contact state and local historical societies, universities and veterans groups. Present his project to them and maybe one of them would be a sponsor .

[Mark-VA]

Great ideas, thanks

[Mark-VA]

Thought I would give a quick update:
We went to the cemetery and tried dowsing for a while with, in my experience was somewhat successful. I had two areas where I got some results but my results may have been fabricated in my mind because the guy he hired to dowse the area had painted spots on the ground where he said there was a grave. Well anyway I ask him if he had probed the ground with a rod seeking possible buried markers and his reply was, no. So, for the next hour I used my L rods to probe all around the areas where the prior guy had marked. Within an hour I had found 4 grave markers ranging from 1" to 4" deep. Needless to say the guy was extremely happy about these located markers. Now the strange thing is they were within 4 feet of the painted markers done by the prior dowser. Evidently the guy knew how to dowse. As a final report we found a local guy with a ground penetrating radar machine who will come next week to finish the job. My friend is so excited.