Headstones Unearthed Along 20th Avenue Old Markers From Pines Cemetery Dumped Decades Ago

A Valley neighborhood got a scare this week when construction crews began digging up tombstones while installing new sewer lines on their street.

Crews from Norm’s Utility Contractor also unearthed what appeared to be a leg bone on 20th Avenue, a couple of blocks south of Pines Cemetery. A neighborhood resident said she was told by workers that they had also found a human skull.

Neither the workers, nor officials with Norm’s Utility Contractor, could be reached for comment.

It was an unusual situation even for county engineering officials, who are used to encountering strange buried objects during construction projects.

“I’ve heard of people excavating for projects and finding whole vehicles,” said Phil Barto, county operations engineer.

But Barto admitted he’s never dealt with buried headstones.

Fortunately - for the neighborhood and the sewer project - an explanation came Thursday from Pines Cemetery officials.

In the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s, then-undeveloped land near 20th Avenue and Union Road served as a dumping ground for old tombstones. When mistakes were made, or markers were upgraded, the rejects got tossed out.

The cemetery never buried bodies there, however, officials said.

The four people whose headstones were discovered Wednesday remain at rest at Pines Cemetery, officials confirmed Thursday. All have new headstones. One has a marker that now includes his wife’s name.

Cemetery officials say they aren’t sure how many headstones might have been left in the old dumping area, which is now covered with homes. The cemetery is currently storing hundreds of similarly rejected or replaced headstones from recent years.

“We’re stockpiling them,” the cemetery office manager said. “There’s just no place to put them anymore.”

The explanation came as a relief to Kathy Snodgrass, who had been saddened at the thought of someone’s loved ones being disturbed.

“There was a little boy’s tombstone out there, 6 years old,” she said, glancing toward the road. “His name was Georgie.”

Crews dug up three of the headstones in front of Snodgrass’ house. For a while, one of the markers sat in her wheelbarrow on the front lawn, along with the long bone that looked like a femur, she said.

Snodgrass, who is home all day because she home schools her children, said one of the men working on the project told her he had also found a skull just up the road, near where another tombstone was unearthed.

She now wonders if he was joking.

Snodgrass never saw a skull, and the workers later left with the bone that had been in her yard.

One worker, she said, acted worried because the discovery of human bones might shut the project down.

The Glenview Sewer Project, begun last year, will install sewer lines in the area bounded by Bowdish and Pines roads and 16th and 25th avenues.

The project is scheduled for completion next month, but will likely live on for years in the imaginations of neighborhood children. Especially those who love to tell ghost stories.

“It’s a good thing I’m not superstitious,” Snodgrass said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo