By J.B. Smith

Tribune-Herald staff writer

The undeveloped section of Fort Fisher Park should be rededicated as a historical cemetery, not used for an expansion of the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, Waco City Manager Larry Groth recommended Tuesday.

His recommendation came as the Waco City Council allocated $280,000 for a new archaeological firm to continue relocating graves at the museum grounds. The council hired PBS&J of Austin to exhume remains from the path of a waterline that is being built toward new buildings at the museum complex.

The council already had allocated $437,000 to American Archaeology, which found about 160 bodies along the waterline route. The firm was fired over deadline and staffing issues.

SLIDE SHOWS

Richard Thompson takes bones from museum expansion site / July 19, 2007

American Archaeology Group photos of grave excavations / March 2008

COMPLETE COVERAGE

• 07-21-09  Waco City Council to consider 2 downtown TIF projects tonight 
• 07-20-09  Waco City Council to consider doling out more money for excavation work near Ranger museum 
• 05-12-09  National Park Service wants historic cemetery designation and other changes around Waco's Texas Ranger Museum 
• 12-16-08  Waco City Council to decide whether to spend another nearly $500,000 for Rangers Museum work 
• 10-29-08  Cemetery 'debacle' at Ranger Museum site will bring about new legislation, lawmaker says 
• 10-08-08  City of Waco countersues archaeological firm in Texas Ranger Museum project 
• 09-23-08  State legislator tours burial site at Texas Ranger Museum expansion 
• 09-08-08  Political charges fly over graveyard dig at Ranger Museum 
• 09-06-08  State calls inquiry on graves at Ranger museum site 
• 09-05-08  State funeral hearing's focus shifts to graves at Texas Ranger Museum expansion 
• 09-04-08  State agency hearing in Waco today on families' access to graves 
• 05-07-08  City OKs spending up to $350,000 to dig beneath graves for water line to museum 
• 05-06-08  Letting First Street Cemetery dead rest in peace will come at a cost, city leaders say 
• 04-27-08  Descendants of First Street Cemetery dead plea for peace at long last 
• 04-02-08  Museum grounds may be re-dedicated as old cemetery 
• 03-23-08  DEAD WRONG: Bad assumptions, ignorance played havoc with old city cemetery 
• 03-08-08  Firm says city mismanaged burial site at Ranger museum 
• 11-13-07  Grave concerns bedevil Texas Ranger Hall of Fame project 
• 08-06-07  Texas Ranger Museum gets OK to resume construction at site where bones were unearthed 
• 07-24-07  State officials scrutinizing loose human bones, ambitious museum plans 
• 07-20-07  Missing bones cause big beef for city, museum officials 
• 07-19-07  A bone to pick: Case of exposed skeletal remains 'gone awry' 

OPINION

• 04-03-08  Editorial: Re-dedicate old Waco cemetery 
• 03-25-08  Editorial: Solution, not blame needed at old cemetery 

In recent months, evidence has grown that most of the Fort Fisher site was a large city cemetery for more than 100 years and that a cemetery relocation process in 1968 missed most of the bodies.

A museum master plan had called for further expansion into that area, but Groth said that would not be respectful to the dead.

“Knowing what we know now, there’s not any sense of planning more construction in that area,” he said. “It should become part of First Street Cemetery.”

Texas Historical Commission officials have urged the city to rededicate the grounds as a cemetery.

“Their eyes light up when we talk about this,” Groth said.

Expansion still possible

However, Groth said the museum still could be expanded but toward the front of the tract. Some of the one-story museum could be replaced with a multistory building, he said.

Meanwhile, Groth said the city is considering boring under the remaining graves in the path of the waterline to avoid further disturbances.

Councilman Randy Riggs said rededicating the cemetery is the right thing to do.

“As more history comes out, it’s clear we need to maintain our heritage and culture,” he said. “If graves are out there, we shouldn’t be building there. There are religious and moral issues here.”

In other business, the council approved $900,000 in Tax Increment Financing Zone incentives to a downtown hotel, an Austin Avenue loft renovation project, a facade improvement program and the orangutan-komodo dragon exhibit at Cameron Park Zoo.

jbsmith@wacotrib.com

757-5752