The Wickenburg Project

Ground Penetrating Radar Survey

of the Henry Wickenburg Pioneer Cemetery

On 9 Jul 2026 Dr. Jacob "Jake" Harris, Assistant Professor in the Arizona State University School of Interdisciplinary Forensics (SIF) conducted a Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey of portions of the Henry Wickenburg Pioneer Cemetery.

The survey located a grave-shaped anomaly centered approximately 23' east-northeast of the W. Weise grave, precisely where one of the cadaver dogs tentatively alerted in February of 2022. Dr Harris advised that it was very shallow and somewhat small for a grave, being only about 2 x 5.5'. This, however, would be consistent with the burial of William George Salmon, whose remains were scavenged when first buried at the massacre site, then brought to the cemetery and buried beside his companions. The body was probably fairly well skeletonized and incomplete, and therefore would not have been buried in a coffin (or, perhaps, very deeply).

Gary at the area to be searched, east of the W. Weise grave.

The roughly triangular area in front of and to the left of the light pole was where the dog detected scent in 2022.

Dr. Harris begins "mowing the lawn" with his GPR unit.

Gary assists by standing on the "dummy" end of the tape!

Dr. Harris enters the "area of interest" where the dog alerted and where the anomaly was found.

GPR printout showing anomaly in the area of interest.

Anomaly in the lower right corner was actually a creosote bush run over by the GPR at the beginning of the survey.

Another GPR printout showing "side scan" view at bottom (indicated by arrow) showing extreme shallowness of anomaly.

Data would be consistent with burial of skull (at #240) and pelvis (at #175) of partially scavenged skeletal remains.

Google Earth view of cemetery showing position of anomaly about 20' from the foot of the Weise grave.

Efforts are now ongoing to obtain high-resolution drone photos of the cemetery to replace the rather fuzzy Google Earth shots,

Google Sites

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