A professor of history at Immaculata College in Pennsylvania, he is the author of 'The Ghosts of Duffy's Cut', and has a team or researchers and archaeologists on standby to start the search in Duffy's Cut this summer - provided he can raise the $20,000 needed to pay for the specialist search equipment.

"I'm a historian by trade," explained Prof. Watson, and it just so happens that the place where I teach, Immaculata University, is approximately a mile from the site of Duffy's Cut.

"I had no idea about that - the name of Duffy's Cut was in effect lost to history - but I came across the only contextual evidence for it in 2002, when my brother and I discovered a file on Duffy's Cut which our grandfather, who worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad - had been given in 1909.

"From then on it became a crusade for us to find the site and to have it designated a historical site - which we have done. We've written a book on it - 'The Ghosts of Duffy's Cut - to try to get the story out, and there was the documentary, and the next phase is to find the bodies, identify them, and have them reinterred."

Tracking down

Prof. Watson explained that while finding the bodies was difficult, the team was in no doubt that they would be able to track them down - provided they had the necessary funding to do so.

"It's a bit like throwing darts at a dartboard a mile away," he said. "We have located the camp, and we know where they lived and died, but finding the location of the bodies is more difficult.We know that they are somewhere in the valley of Mile 59 - as Duffy's Cut was known - but, without the funds for the specialist equipment which can show us exactly where the bones are under the ground, we won't be able to find them and we won't be able to identify them or inter them properly.

Permission

"We've got all the permission necessary for the search, but we have no means of doing it without the scientific equipment," he said.
If the project can raise enough money, Prof. Watson said that the project is ready to start this summer.

"Here in the States there are major difficulties with getting funding, and with the merits of this project, we really should have been able to get funding.Thank God for the people working in the North West - they've taken it on as their own personal crusade, and we hope that people over there will be generous and help us raise the money we need.
"One we get going, it will take six weeks at most to scan the entire valley. It will give us a 3D image of exactly what is beneath the surface. There have to be people over in Ireland who are the descendants of the men of Duffy's Cut, and it would be incredible not only to find their bodies, but to find their relatives.

"We've been hoping for years now to be able to find the bodies, and we know we're close, we're that close... it's too good to be true, really."