New development projects on previously undeveloped land often encroach upon existing private properties and farmlands. Sometimes such a property includes cemeteries. Usually in such cases, the bodies are dug up and moved to a new cemetery with the developers footing the bill. But sometimes families refuse to move the graves of their ancestors forcing developers to build around the cemeteries or the graves, such as in Amity, in the state of Indiana, U.S, where there is a grave right in the middle of the road.

Something similar happened when the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport in the city of Savannah, Georgia, United States was being expanded. Centuries ago, this area was woods and farmland belonging to the Dotson family. Their family cemetery was packed with more than a hundred people including those of many slaves. Among these graves were those belonging to Richard and Catherine Dotson, who died within seven years of each other in the late 1870s and early 1890s, nearly two decades before the Wright brothers flew the first flight.

The graves of Richard and Catherine Dotson on Runway 10 of Savannah Airport.