Rail Worker Graves Found At Lions Site Club To Mark Off Area Where Chinese Are Buried

For years, Chinese railroad workers have been rumored to be buried on land that now is owned by the Rathdrum Lions Club.

Some locals believed the rumor wholeheartedly, with some claiming to have seen the grave markers before they disappeared over time. But others disputed the idea, saying the graves either never existed or had been moved years ago.

Now, it looks as if the rumor is true.

“They found probably 12 graves,” said Cherry Heitstuman, a member of the city cemetery board. She has been working to make sure the graves are not disturbed.

The buried Chinese apparently worked on the Northern Pacific Railroad and died while they were around Rathdrum. At that time, they weren’t allowed to be buried in the all-white Pinegrove Cemetery, according to local legend. Instead, they were buried just outside the cemetery.

Earlier this year, the Rathdrum Lions Club began making a gravel parking lot out of the area.

That upset people who believed the Chinese workers were buried there, and many of them called Rathdrum City Hall to complain.

Margaret Parodi and her husband, Kent Johnson, who own Aquila Geosciences in Potlatch, Idaho, read about the situation in The Idaho Spokesman-Review.

They recently had purchased some new ground-penetrating radar equipment for their business and wanted practice using it. They offered to check out the site for free as a community service to the Lions Club, and in August, they drove up from Potlatch to do so.

First, they used the equipment to take readings on some graves inside the cemetery, graves of people they knew had been buried around the same time, the late 1800s, Parodi explained. When they checked the nearby Lions Club parking lot, they found similar readings, she said.

“We’re not positive,” she said, explaining that while it’s very likely that those are the graves, “until you go in and excavate, you can’t be entirely sure.”

Still, the readings were certain enough for the Lions Club, club President Bob McComb said.

“They (Parodi and Johnson) did an excellent job,” he said.

“We’re going to mark off the area where the graves are,” he said. It’s about 80 feet by 50 feet. “Something had to be done, and hopefully we did the right thing.”

It’s illegal in Idaho to disturb grave sites or build over them.

Aquila Geosciences has worked for law enforcement agencies in the past to determine if drugs, weapons or even bodies were buried in certain suspected areas, Parodi said. But in the 12 years the couple has been in business, they usually perform their services for people who want to determine where underground pipes or storage tanks are located.

“This is certainly more exciting than locating underground tanks,” she said.

Heitstuman is pleased that the graves will be marked and undisturbed.

“They’re doing right,” she said. “That’s what we wanted from the beginning was for them to recognize them. I don’t care whose graves they are - it’s part of our history.”