1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:07,720 Speaker 1: M show what he else about. All dig below the 2 00:00:07,800 --> 00:00:11,160 Speaker 1: surface in central Mississippi, and odds are good you'll find 3 00:00:11,160 --> 00:00:14,960 Speaker 1: a burnt orange color looking back up at you. It's 4 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:19,000 Speaker 1: called Yazoo clay, and there's one thing. It's known for 5 00:00:19,840 --> 00:00:24,480 Speaker 1: wreaking havoc on anything buried in it. It is the strangest, 6 00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:28,520 Speaker 1: most destructive soil I've ever dug in before. You never 7 00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:29,480 Speaker 1: get what you expect. 8 00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:29,960 Speaker 2: Now. 9 00:00:30,480 --> 00:00:34,879 Speaker 1: Over the years, Yazoo clay has held and destroyed a 10 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:39,480 Speaker 1: lot of Mississippi's secrets. But in twenty twelve, a construction 11 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:45,159 Speaker 1: crew uncovered a big one graves, thousands of them on 12 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:47,440 Speaker 1: the site of the old State Asylum. 13 00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:49,920 Speaker 2: And may have thought they're only found a thousand and 14 00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:52,320 Speaker 2: then once I realized, okay, well you had two thousand. 15 00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:54,200 Speaker 2: Wait a minute, seven thousand. 16 00:00:54,360 --> 00:00:58,520 Speaker 1: And all this begs the question, just how do you 17 00:00:58,640 --> 00:01:04,520 Speaker 1: lose track of seven thousand graves? The Mississippi State Lunatic 18 00:01:04,560 --> 00:01:08,600 Speaker 1: Asylum closed its doors back in nineteen thirty five. It 19 00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:12,000 Speaker 1: didn't take long for the asylum cemetery to fade from memory. 20 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:14,480 Speaker 2: And all of a sudden I looked down and there 21 00:01:14,560 --> 00:01:17,080 Speaker 2: was a headstone, And all of a sudden, I walked 22 00:01:17,120 --> 00:01:20,399 Speaker 2: a bit further, and I started looking all around and 23 00:01:20,520 --> 00:01:25,760 Speaker 2: there were scores of headstones. I said, this is a 24 00:01:26,160 --> 00:01:28,479 Speaker 2: big cemetery. 25 00:01:28,920 --> 00:01:33,720 Speaker 1: Today, the cemetery, it's just a sprawling green island in 26 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:36,800 Speaker 1: the middle of what's now the biggest medical center in 27 00:01:36,840 --> 00:01:41,120 Speaker 1: the state. But the graves might not be there much longer. 28 00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:44,399 Speaker 2: When I hear them say, you know, we've done all 29 00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:46,400 Speaker 2: we can do for the dead. It's time to do 30 00:01:46,520 --> 00:01:50,280 Speaker 2: something for the living. We need that land. We just 31 00:01:50,320 --> 00:01:55,240 Speaker 2: forgot they were buried out there. They didn't just forget. 32 00:01:55,680 --> 00:01:59,680 Speaker 1: These graves hold real people, and their descendants are looking 33 00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:01,840 Speaker 1: for the real story because it's not just about me. 34 00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:05,920 Speaker 1: It's my family. This was my family's mystery. 35 00:02:06,040 --> 00:02:06,720 Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. 36 00:02:06,880 --> 00:02:10,519 Speaker 1: What happened to Grandma's in it? This is a story 37 00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:11,480 Speaker 1: about family. 38 00:02:12,040 --> 00:02:14,399 Speaker 2: They put him in an insane soyl Our mom said 39 00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:16,600 Speaker 2: he wasn't crazy, he's just starving. 40 00:02:16,880 --> 00:02:18,840 Speaker 1: It's a story about secrets. 41 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:20,840 Speaker 2: But if there's gonna be a good story, they've got 42 00:02:21,480 --> 00:02:24,240 Speaker 2: the voices. It gets burried. 43 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:27,200 Speaker 1: Down so deep that any kind. 44 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:32,600 Speaker 2: Of scratch of the surface has to be tamped down. 45 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:36,240 Speaker 1: Quick in a place where even the ground wants you 46 00:02:36,320 --> 00:02:40,639 Speaker 1: to forget. This soil technically shouldn't exist. 47 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:42,359 Speaker 2: It has character, it. 48 00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:46,200 Speaker 1: Does its own it seems, but this is also a 49 00:02:46,240 --> 00:02:48,960 Speaker 1: story about how we reckon with the past. 50 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:51,280 Speaker 2: We don't see the shame, but we see the effects 51 00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:53,400 Speaker 2: of the shame. If you have any standing in the 52 00:02:53,440 --> 00:02:56,720 Speaker 2: state of Mississippi, part of your work is writing. 53 00:02:56,520 --> 00:03:03,000 Speaker 1: Wrongs in Mississippi. Keeping secrets is as old as the 54 00:03:03,120 --> 00:03:08,920 Speaker 1: soil itself, So can the truth ever really be uncovered? 55 00:03:09,360 --> 00:03:15,360 Speaker 1: The story is much more complicated and nuanced than that. 56 00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:22,239 Speaker 1: I'm Larison Campbell and this is under Yazoo Clay. Listen 57 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:24,040 Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.