Watch Now: No discoveries during first day of Oaklawn excavation, but scientists remain optimistic

No human remains were found Monday on the first day of a test excavation in Oaklawn Cemetery, but the archeological team members looking for unmarked burials from Tulsa’s 1921 Race Massacre said they are not discouraged.

Maybe a little surprised, but not discouraged.

The surprise is that the team excavated to a depth of more than 7 feet without reaching either a foundational layer of soil or any signs that humans were buried on the site.

Instead, the team encountered only “fill” — soil and other materials (including what appeared to be the door to a boiler) dumped on the spot sometime in the distant past.

State Archeologist Kary Stackelbeck said the fill material causes the scientists to still believe the site at the west end of the cemetery is a likely place to search for unmarked burials.

A foundational layer of soil likely would signal the end of the search in that location.

The group plans to resume work early Tuesday.

Work proceeded quickly Monday after a rain delay of more than four hours, with a city track hoe crew carving out a 10-foot-by-20-foot area to a depth of about 3 feet and then digging a trench to the deeper depth across the middle.

After each bucketful, the archeologists and forensic anthropologist Phoebe Stubblefield swooped in like birds to poke at the soil in search of clues.

The site being explored this week was identified by written and oral history and by subsurface scanning carried out late last year.

Records and news reports say 18 Black victims from the May 31-June 1, 1921, massacre were buried in Oaklawn, but beyond that is the widespread belief that many more bodies have not been accounted for and that at least some of them may have been buried at Oaklawn Cemetery.

Death certificates have been found for 37 people killed in the massacre, but estimates of the number of dead ranged from 50 to 500 at the time. From the very first, rumors persisted of clandestine burials at various sites, including some far from Tulsa.

Oaklawn is one of a number of areas identified as potential burial sites by a team assembled at the request of Mayor G.T. Bynum. Other locations include the present Rolling Oaks Cemetery in south Tulsa and an area along the Arkansas River immediately west of downtown.

In a noon press briefing on Monday, Bynum reiterated his desire to locate as many unidentified burial sites as possible.

He sidestepped the issue of reparations, saying, “I really want, before we have that discussion, to really try to find these folks. … This is Step 1 in trying to find out what that justice looks like.”

Bynum said the city should follow the facts “wherever they lead” and prove that it is “trying to do the right thing, even if it’s hard.”

Oaklawn will be closed during the work, which is expected to last at least through Wednesday. Spectators are allowed to watch from outside the west end of the cemetery near the work site.

The excavation originally was scheduled to begin April 1 but was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gallery: Test excavations in Tulsa Race Massacre mass graves search resumes