By AAN Jack Quirk
Most of us know exactly where our loved ones are buried. We visit on holidays, leave flowers, and share stories. We take comfort in knowing where they rest and trust that future generations will remember.
But southwest of Hennessey, hidden in a pasture on the Hobbs family ranch, sits a cemetery where many of those answers have been lost to time.
On this episode of We’re Going In, we explore the remains of a forgotten community known as Paris, Oklahoma.
Today, only three visible grave markers remain standing in a field. Yet local historians and family members believe many more people may be buried there.
“My grandparents lived here, and they moved here in 1917,” said Michael Hobbs. “His father purchased this place in 1906. This is what we call the ranch.”
According to property records, one acre of land was deeded for a church and another acre for a cemetery. Those small parcels are among the few surviving reminders of a once-thriving community.
According to historians, the town of Paris was settled by formerly enslaved African Americans who came from Paris, Texas. Like many all-Black communities established after the Civil War, it offered residents an opportunity to build lives, homes, churches, and schools of their own.
“There was a community there,” said Kim Hobbs. “They were freed slaves from Paris, Texas, so they called their community Paris.”
Over time, however, the town disappeared.
The buildings vanished. Families moved away. The cemetery faded from memory.
About 40 years ago, Kim Hobbs noticed something unusual while horseback riding across the property. “It had just rained,” he recalled. “You could clearly see where these coffins had sunken in. There was a puddle of water beside one, then another, then another all the way down the fence line.”
The discovery suggested that many more graves existed than the few visible headstones indicated.
Recent cleanup efforts have revealed additional clues. Hobbs family members uncovered broken grave markers belonging to a minister and his wife. Researchers have also identified evidence that a Buffalo Soldier, a member of the historic African American cavalry units of the U.S. Army, may be buried there.
The findings attracted the attention of historians and archaeologists, eventually bringing researchers from Langston University, the University of Oklahoma, and the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey to the site.
“We were contacted about this incredible resource that the Hobbs family has been protecting,” said Kary Stackelbeck of the University of Oklahoma. “It’s an old Black township known as Paris.”
Researcher, Dr. John Winters, Langston University, believes the community existed only a short time before residents were forced to relocate to nearby towns such as Lacey, Enid, Kingfisher, and Dover.
While the town itself has disappeared, archaeologists hope modern technology can reveal what remains beneath the surface.
Using a combination of magnetic survey equipment and ground-penetrating radar, researchers spent the day mapping the cemetery.
One instrument, described as “a metal detector on steroids,” measures magnetic variations in the soil that can indicate disturbed ground, coffin hardware, or other buried objects.
The second system, mounted on what looks remarkably like a lawn mower, uses ground-penetrating radar to send signals into the earth and measure what lies below. “The radar can tell us if a coffin is present and how deep it is,” explained archaeologist Scott Hammerstedt. “Sometimes there’s something there, sometimes there isn’t. You can never tell with these old cemeteries.”
The data collected in the field will now be processed using specialized software at the University of Oklahoma.
Researchers hope the results will provide a clearer picture of how many people are buried there and help preserve an important piece of Oklahoma history.
For the Hobbs family and those involved in the project, the effort is about more than archaeology. It’s about remembrance.
“I don’t know that I can reach out to every family, Kim Hobbs said. But just to know how many people are there, we’ll look after them as long as I have anything to do with it.”
Soon, researchers may finally answer a question that has lingered for generations. Just how many people are buried in the forgotten cemetery of Paris, Oklahoma?
And perhaps, in doing so, help ensure they are forgotten no more.
