LITTLE ROCK, Ark.- A stunning discovering underneath The Arkansas School for the Deaf, a real-life crypt with unknown contents has been found just six inches below the campus. The school has more than a century of rich history that dates back to 1849.
“My heart is here,” signed J.R. Courtright, Director of Arkansas Deaf Heritage Center. J.R. Courtright is a third-generation student on this campus.
“My grandmother came here to the school for the deaf in the 1930s and next was my father,” signed Courtright. Courtright’s son also attended the school for a short time.
During his time as a student, Courtright was familiar with the spooky stories that came along with a historic school.
“At night the watchman said at night sometimes he would feel something grab him or something,” signed Courtright. The stories are still shared today but recently those tales from the crypt became a lot more real.
“We noticed a culvert a hole and wanted to see what was going on with it so they called us and we found out there were several things underneath there.” signed, Courtright.
What started as a small hole in the pavement grew. Staff found not only a crypt, but a new tombstone was found and the rain is helping uncover even more. “Done more research and found more things going on,” signed Courtright.
Courtright, Superintendent Janet Dickinson and the rest of the faculty took the opportunity to dig deeper into the school’s history. “We’ve heard stories that possibly some of the kids had gotten sick and the families were very poor so they would bury them here on campus,” signed Janet Dickinson, Superintendent,
These stores date back to the 1800 and 1900’s so its unclear how many teachers and students might be buried on the campus. “It’s a bigger number than we’ve expected,” signed Courtright.
For now, the area is covered up but come January the Archeology survey society will be coming out to the school to do more testing. In addition the students will do research into the history in an effort to find how many people are really buried out on the campus.