Reply to NPS Email 6/20/2001

From: Robert Heafner
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2001 5:25 PM
To: Gordon Wissinger
Subject: RE: Your letter to the Blue Ridge Parkway

Mr. Wissinger:

Thank you for replying so quickly.

I would be happy to meet with Ms. DeCesar. My home phone number is [phone number removed] and my office number is [phone number removed] ext [extension removed].

Before Matt Burnett died he and I met with a gentleman from Howell's Funeral Home in Stuart, Va., and he was able to pinpoint the location of several of the graves, but not all. Mr. Matt was on the Parkway construction crew that moved the original gravestones.

On the Dan River several miles from the Parkway and US 58 intersection, is the remnant of an old gristmill dam that was, according to Mr. Matt, built by the Langhorne slaves.

This is a matter close to my heart and I will assist in any way possible in getting the monuments replaced or hopefully, as I stated in my letter to Superintendent Brown, "erecting a monument in this meadow that would be more than the simple rocks that once marked the graves" in order to honor the Black experience in the Blue Ridge.

Your help will be very much appreciated.

Thank you,

Bob Heafner
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