Makeover at Whitehorse cemetery reveals hundreds of unexpected, unmarked graves

Work related to the refurbishment of Pioneer Cemetery in Whitehorse has shown close to 800 people were buried there between 1900 and the 1960s and more than half of them in unmarked graves.

Last winter, work crewsscanned the cemetery with ground-penetrating radar, andestimated there were remains from 485 unknown individuals.

"If you have relatives buried there, if you have friends buried there, oryour parents and grandparents please let us know because at the Cityof Whitehorse they are trying to track all the graves," saidIan Robertson, the lead consultant on the project.

Robertsonsaid he expected the number of graves with no markers to be about half as large.

He said a goal should be set, toidentifyat least 50 of the remains each year. He believesa starting point could be the existing list of names of people who are known to be buried there, but no longer have a marker on their graves.

"Weare putting, as part of this project, concrete pads down but we can't add the name until we confirm who's actually buried where," he said.

Robertson said at the very least there should be a wall installed atthe cemetery, listing thenames of all those known to have been buried there. He said many of those peoplemade remarkable contributions to the history of the territory.

A neglected site

The refurbishment of the cemetery park was sparked about five years ago when members of the community asked the city to clean up the neglected site.

One was Grant Lundy, who has since died.

Another was Red Grossinger, a longtime member of the Royal Canadian Legion, who regularly visits the grave sites of military veterans.

Grossinger said the graveyard was in general disrepair andlittered with dog feces and used needles and condoms.

Speaking at the "grand re-opening" of the cemetery park on Wednesday, Grossinger said the makeover is asuccess. He saidcomparing it to a year or two ago was like"day and night."

''Now we have signage around, place is clean, there'sfootpaths around that are marked," he said.

"No dogs running around, which is much better.It's going to be kept this way, I hope.So I'm happy and I'm pleased with it."

Heidi Redman, a landscape architect who worked on the design team, said the refurbishment should help keep the site in good condition.

There's now an off-leash dog park nearby, paved walkways meander through the cemetery to help keep people from walking over graves, andtrees and bushes have been thinned in hopes of discouraging drug use and other activities from occurring there, said Redman.

"So there's more eyes on the cemetery, there's better sight lines to see in and out of it so I think that increases the security, and I think people will take more ownership of the space now," she said.