GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) – A new ground-penetrating radar survey is helping Brown County preserve a little-known piece of its history.
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Researchers recently surveyed the historic Brown County Poor Farm cemetery on St. Anthony Drive, near the county’s Veterans Tiny Homes project, identifying what appear to be between 15 and 20 graves and providing a more accurate picture of the cemetery’s boundaries.
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh anthropologist Jordan Karsten conducted the survey using ground-penetrating radar, a technology that sends radio waves into the ground to detect buried objects without disturbing the soil.
Karsten said the survey identified a cluster of east-west oriented burials consistent with a historic cemetery.
The cemetery is associated with Brown County’s Poor Farm, which operated during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Poor Farm provided housing and work for people who could not support themselves, and many who died there were buried on the property.
According to Karsten, the state previously relied on limited historical records to estimate the cemetery’s location. The new survey gives officials a more precise understanding of where the cemetery begins and ends…