'To preserve and honor:' Cadaver dog searches for gravesites of convicts from 1870s who built the railroad near Old Fort

In October of last year, the RAIL Memorial Project Committee dedicated this marker that pays tribute to the mostly African-American convicts who labored under brutal conditions to build the railroad in the 1870s. The memorial, on the grounds of Andrews Geyser near Old Fort, recognizes the huge contribution from the incarcerated laborers who actually did the back-breaking work of clearing the path through the thick woods, cutting the cross ties themselves, pounding seven tunnels through solid rock, clearing out dozens of open cuts (some through rock, some through dirt), and laying the rails.