6/20/22; Cynthiana, KY; A grove of trees at the top of the hill in the field behind the Elk Lodge on Oddville Avenue a mile and a half outside of Cynthiana that is known as the Desha slave cemetery near the Coleman-Desha Plantation house on June 20, 2022. The location of the slave burials is said to lay outside this small grove of trees and have been trampled over throughout the years. At the base of the trees are stacks of rocks in shapes like circles marking the area, only one tombstone stands in the middle of the space that is hardly readable due to age. The grave is one of the Desha sons that died due to cholera. This cemetery isn’t registered with the plantation that can be seen at the bottom of the hill among groves of trees. The Coleman family held the estate until June 14, 1827, owning thirteen slaves, when it was sold to a former Kentucky Governor, Joseph Desha. Under the Desha family the plantation grew and was worked by twenty-seven slaves. Photograph by Jesse Barber