I have obtained permission to copy the following article from our Snohomish County Tribune, dated Wednesday, January 4, 2006, Volume 117, Number 1 2005 Year in Review Issue: Article (header):: Snohomish discovers 96 remains at old settler's cemetery By Jenny Zuvela + PIX Snohomish Senior Center on top of the Cemetery. by Doug Ramsay. Text as follows: Archeologists ahve found 96 possible human remains buried under the site planned for a nrw Snohomish Senior Center, which sits on top of an abandoned pioneer cemetery. Tulalip Tribes officials said they would object to the construction of the center before remains are identified. Historical accounts point to a tribal burial ground at the site before pioneers settled in the area. The cemetery has been abandoned since the 1920s. "Before the project can continue we need to know whose (remains) they are," Tribal Councilmember Glen Gobin said. "Nothing's going to happen until that's done." That has been the plan since the beginning, said City Manager Larry Baum,an, as the city is following a court-ordered process of finding, identifying and removing remains before prepping the land for construction. The number of possible remains found surprised city staff and the Tulalip Tribes and lef Gobin wondering why these remains weren't moved almost 60 years ago. In 1947, the state decertified part of the cemetery and paved Highway 2, now Second Street, through the middle of it. At that time the state removed 111 remains to the Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery, and relatives have removed and relocated others throughout the decades. Apparently, they didn't remove them all. Seven or eight positive indications of human remains were found in part of the Second Street right-of-way, in the area that the state decertified as a cemetery in 1947. "We were really surprised to find anything there," Bauman said. "We really thought all of that would (have been) removed when they built the highway. "We were surprised to find as many as we did throughout the site." The Tribes signed an agreement to partner with the city throughout this process based on the assumption that the remains had already been removed, Gobin said. The city identified one intact burial and one probably burial on the site using ground-penetrating radar in 1998, support services director Brad Nelson said. The technology at the time was not sophisticated enough to reveal what was really under the surface, and root systems from trees that have grown since the cemetery was used may have interfered, Bauman said. Snohomish County Superior Court has since ordered the city to conduct a more intrusive, accurate study, Bauman said. It began in August and was expected to last three to four weeks. Due to the large number of possible remains, the process dragged out into four months, he said. Working on one 10-foot-by-10 foot section at a time, archeologists used a backhoe to dig down two inches at a time until they reached undisturbed soil 18 to 24 inches down, checking for indications of grave shafts, Bauman said in a past interview. The city's next step is to obtain authorization from the judge for archeologists to fully open the burial shafts, exhume the graves and identify the remains. The judge's decision will be based on the archeologists' report to be completed in Februrary. Experts would then study bone structure and any items found with the remains, such as coffin handles, jewlry or tribal artifacts, to determine ethnicity and possibly identy, Bauman said. But the sheer number of possible remains found could prompt leaders to reconsider building at all, Gobin said. According to the plan, those remains determined to be of American Indian descent will be turned over to the Tulalip Tribes, identified remains will be returned to relatives, and unclaimed remains will be buried at the GAR Cemetery. The Tribal Counsel will make decisions on what to do should any remains be idenified as American Indian, Gobin said. "We don't know yet what the best option is," he said. "A lot of it hinges on identifying those remains." Archeologists did not discover indications that any of the remains are American Indian, but that doesn't mean none of them are, Bauman said. Meanwhile, the 273 senior membersstill have a long wait before getting their new building. Plans to build a $1.2 million, 6000 square-foot center and six to eight apartments for affordable senior housing have been pushed back due to this process, and the board of directors now hopes for a December 2006 opening. The seniors have almost met their fundraising goal through state and county grants, corporate constributions, privage donations and pledges, executive director Karen Charnell said. They are still $80,000 short. The City Council earmarked $150,000 for the decertification process from start to finish, but that won't be enough, Nelson said. Staff will ask the council to revise the budget in February or March. Gobin was suprised that only the Tribes have raised concerns about building the center over a former cemetery. "Nobody else is standing up trying to protect the non-Indian ancestors that are there," Gobin said. "It's a cemetery. I find it hard to believe that no one else is really standing up and saying anything." End of the article from the Tribune in full with the permission from the Editor Jessica Sparks. * * * 30 * * * COMMENT: What remains are there beneath the present Senior Center Building which was placed on top of the Cemetery? What remains are in the North portions of the old Cemetery on the North side of Second Street where "old Snohomish Village" is on display, and was designated by the City as Parcel C, when the South of the Highway Cut was designated as Parcels A and B, or the part that the above article is all about? How does a TOWN pioneer cemetery become ABANDONED? When is a Cemetery, like Snohomish Cemetery, NOT a c e m e t e r y ? Is there NO HISTORY in this Cemetery? Why is there a List of Names of persons buried there (or whose remains may have been removed to GAR for the Hwy 2 Cut (only!!)? "They" are surprised to find that there are remains there - how l o n g have I been writing about this Subject? Common sense would show that the whole Cemetery, Parcels A, B, and C were never completely "dug up" - the cost would have been prohibitive. Removing tombstones doesn't exhume a whole cemetery at so many $$ per skull found. Just the Hwy 2 dig was more costly than had been anticipated at the time - there were multiple burials, not just one burials remains per plot! That was disclosed in the records back when the Hwy 2 dig was completed - an 80 ft. swathe not out of the center of the Cemetery but quite off center so that Parcels A and B are the largest parts on the South side of the cut, while Parcel C is on the North and much smaller portion of the Hwy 2 cut. Time Will Tell ! Carroll in Snohomish * * * 30 * * * -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.371 / Virus Database: 267.14.12/220 - Release Date: 1/3/06