For the 2nd time...I find myself gathering the bones of local pioneers that are discarded or adrift
And at least I have the time/inclination to keep at it.
My main hobby-for exercise to help a serious sleep disorder-is Metal detecting.
A few years back I saw some piles of dirt/sod laying in a roadside field. County tears out soil from parks all the time-figured I'd take a poke with my detector.
I started finding what looked like bath towel handles-from the most gaudy era ever. Scrollwork & plated-I had no clue. Found a few of similar handles. Then I found a plaque with writing on it. I didn't slow down to clean it so it was legible. I just kept going to the next pile and then it all became kinda obvious.
A femur...
A skull cap..
Backbone-mostly intact.
Dentures-more than one set...
Freak out! kinda sorta but I did call the local police.
Turns out the county had discarded what they thought was empty soil from a pioneer graveyard. I had a story in the Oregonian & was told the piles had been cleaned up that day!...
That was a lie of course. The mounds were all intact. I guess they just too the visable stuff & called it a day. Later they fenced it off.
In the last 2 weeks they had goats clearing the heavy berry brush. Last 3 days they had crews taking it down to bare soil.
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I had seen the activity at the site passing by on my way to the local riverside beach. I had detected this beach many times & knew there was an old gravesite in the hillside-under a parking area. It was eroding as a hillside on a river will do. And I had found similar coffin parts-very ornate-coming from the hillside & directly below it. That was over 2 years ago.
3 days ago it had just rained hard & the river was low. Time to see what nature has brought closer.
Directly below the hillside on the beach-there were bones. Rib & vertebrae-very small. I gathered them knowing what they likely were. I did a google search & the majority were easily identifiable as human remains. I wrapped them in brown paper & twine. Inserted a rose from my Wife's garden & buried it directly above its original location in a tree grove. I e-mailed the county as to the situation. I just hoped they could preserve the remains during an upcoming renovation for the area. Maybe get some local anthropology students involved.
The next day driving by I recognized a county supervisor at the original site where the dirt mounds had been left & crews were cleaning. I ended up showing him the exact location & dug up the remains I found so they could go to the Pioneer Cemetary.
Seems after all they decided to do a proper job on the original site.
And at least I have advised them of the other unmarked cemetery. I'd estimate this one to be 1900's by the ornamentation I found at the hillside.
And for the last 3 days-I have found more. All appear to be the same individual-a young juvenile or infant. It is sloughing off directly below the area I found the coffin parts.
The supervisor also gave me a location where further "historic" remains can be placed in honor. And I really admire those that established this area. I have been digging up pieces of the lives they led for years now-and they have my utmost respect.
In fact I feel blessed I can do this for them.
= new reply since forum marked as read
At one time, the DAR had projects in many areas to map all local cemeteries and where possible record the important information about the burials. If there is not an active chapter near you, maybe there is a historical association that would be interested in helping the county record the locations and keep the various agencies advised of them.
As a kid, I got to visit a lot of graveyards in west central Alabama as my mother traced her genealogy. One family graveyard was pretty decrepit back then, overgrown with broken and toppled headstones. A distant cousin wrote a book about the ancestor who had originally purchased the land from the government and spent part of the proceeds of the book on fixing up the cemetery. He also traced relatives who were buried there but that no tombstones and made a monument with their vitals.
The entrance now looks like this:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=2303977&CScntry=4&CSst=3&CScnty=78&CSsr=41&
I hadn't heard about this. Sure enough, there it is. I won't add the link because it gives your name, but I will be telling my friend about this. The way the treat the old cemeteries around here is shameful. I am sure you have heard about the old cemetery on Stark St. Put a parking lot and buildings on the old unmarked Chinese emigrant section from the 1800s.
