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| Tuesday, December 27, 2011 |
| From radar to witchin' rods |
By Tony Gonzalez
The Tennesssean
John Lodl often heard Rutherford County’s old-timers talk of the divining rods, swearing by their eerie movements as proof positive of bodies buried below.
No headstone, no matter, they said. In the hands of the right person, the wavering of the rods could say more about a cemetery than the aged records that Lodl, bearded and bespectacled but youthful at 37, oversees in the local archives.
One day last winter, Lodl went from skeptical to startled.
In a secluded cemetery in Eagleville, he watched a woman balance a pair of plain old coat hangers on her fingers and walk the field.
“Sure enough, when you cross over a grave, those things cross,” Lodl said. “I can’t explain it. But it works.”
He’s not the only county staffer believing.
Dowsing — also known as witching or doodlebugging — has gained an unlikely following in the technology wing of the county’s historic courthouse. There, a crew better known for digital mapping and laser-guided land surveys finds itself blending those high-tech tools with folkways to find and document the county’s lost cemeteries.
Read the full story at Tennessean.com.Labels: Tennessean
by Tony Gonzalez @
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