History Is Moved, One Skeleton at a Time

The dirt that was trowled out of the graves was put into buckets, which were emptied atop a chicken-wire screen and sifted. Each bone fragment and coffin nail was retrieved.

"We're going at a slower pace, just to try and get everything," said Charlie Rinehart , the senior archaeologist.

The conditions of the skeletons varied. A few had clumps of hair. Others were crumbling into dust. All of the people were buried so the tops of their heads pointed west. Their sightless eyes faced east and the rising sun.