Unique Pioneer Cemetery Challenges

A discovered human bone, likely a small femur joint.

So with the flooding of the cemetery we get asked alot of questions concerning caskets floating and such, as you see often with more modern cemeteries in the South Eastern states, where flooding is prevalent.

To make it simple, this is not something that concerns us here in our pioneer cemetery for a couple of reasons.

All of those reasons, point to the age of our cemetery here in Marysville.

The caskets primarily used in this 167 year old cemetery, are wood. These caskets are all pretty much disintegrated by now, after nearly 2 centuries of flooding, drought, flooding, drought and so on.

Of course, we do have some more modern metal caskets here and there dating in the 19th century. But, for my second reason, it's this simple.... caskets being air tight is a myth. While caskets may "seal" for a short time, after years of exposure to what lies underground, much of the material that isn't metal deteriorates.

But this doesn't mean that cemeteries in flood zones do not have their own unique challenges.

Voids where caskets once were, risk collapse.

Pictured here, is another example of what complications occur from flooding cemeteries... never know "who" or what can float out of gopher holes.

A discovered Victorian era piece of casket hardware

Finding small pieces of casket hardware or pieces of century old bones is pretty common. Bone turns into a "woody" consistency and being as porous as it is, can hold air making it buoyant.

Not to mention, even without flooding, things make their way out.

Apparently...gophers do not like clutter. Cemeteries provide adequate shelter for these critters. They tunnel down and make houses out of the now dried out tombs that keep their shape despite the lack of wooden casket.

What do we do when we discover bone like this small human joint (femur or hummerus) or metal Victorian hardware?

Simple-

We just respectfully place things back in the ground and accept that this is a part of working in such an old cemetery. ❤


What to do if you're visiting and happen across bone or an item that maybe from a grave?

We ask, if you ever happen to be visiting our beloved cemetery and you come across something, leave it be.

Us volunteers know the cemetery well and can usually distinguish where something came from. We know gopher holes and pieces of hardware, about as well as we do the headstones themselves.

Pieces of casket hardware and bone are simply re-buried.

Despite being proactive about returning things to their proper places, gophers and ground squirrels are persistent about removing clutter.

In these cases we "hide" things so that we know where they are. Chances are if you see something sitting on a stone... we put there on purpose.

Part of preserving a historical location includes the hidden gems usually hidden from the eye of it's visitors.

We try to keep the sanctity of this being a place of final rest, as intact as possible ❤