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Bureaucratic fight over graveyard
11/05/08
BY JOHNNIE BACHUSKY
Red Deer Express
A government bureaucratic flap is unfolding over Red Deer’s long forgotten first cemetery as the city’s archivist is charging the province turned a blind eye to its existence 18 years ago to allow the site to be permanently paved over.
While the city was undergoing a civic development project near the intersection of 43 St. and what is now Taylor Dr., engineers notified the province that Red Deer’s first village cemetery was under the site.
However, Michael Dawe, the city’s archivist, said the province responded to say there was no record of a cemetery and the project was allowed to proceed without any archaeological investigation.
Lisa Shankaruk, communications director with Alberta Culture and Community Spirit, said there were “different processes” in place 18 years ago within the provincial government over cemeteries with historical significance.
However, she added the government has no record of any notification from Red Deer about the existence of its first village cemetery, which operated from 1890 to 1893.
“We were not aware of this potential historical resource. We have no information on it. No information at that time was provided to us,” said Shankaruk.
Her ministry recently approved an archaeological survey request for the forgotten cemetery near the site of the former Red Deer Industrial School.
Shankaruk said the survey request was approved to study the historical significance of the long forgotten cemetery site. She said it must be completed before a proposed 55-lot residential development can be allowed to proceed.
Meanwhile, Dawe said he is “perplexed” by the government’s claim of not being notified in 1990 of the pioneer Red Deer cemetery.
“What puzzles me is that an engineer writes a letter, tells you there is a cemetery and that is not a form of notification?,” said Dawe, adding there is also evidence that a pioneer aboriginal cemetery is located immediately south of the old village graveyard site.
He also said the provincial government was notified in 1952 when construction crews digging into the ground for the new Brewery building at 43 St. unearthed the gravesite of Ole Mickelson, a suspected murderer who was gunned down by law enforcement officials in a spectacular gun fight while on the lam in 1892.
“They found human remains. The police were called. It was then sent to the provincial government,” said Dawe, adding it is not known to this day where Mickelson’s remains wound up.
Dawe said he is still interested in having an archeological survey done at the site, which is now completely paved over by Taylor Dr, 43 St. and the Brewery Building along with its parking lots.
“Do I feel that this matter should be pursued? Yes, I do. People are buried there and we shouldn’t ignore them and say, ‘Oh well’,” said Dawe.
He said it is not known how many people were buried at the cemetery, other than Mickelson and Marcella Clemons DeJournal, the young daughter of Ferdinand, a business pioneer in Red Deer during the latter years of the 19th century.
But getting the survey finally started could be challenging for Dawe and the city as two provincial ministries are giving conflicting stories as to which department should handle the request.
The provincial Culture and Community Spirit ministry said the cemetery was finally registered in 2005 with Service Alberta, and any application for a survey would have to go through that ministry because the site is already developed.
However, Cam Traynor, spokesperson for Service Alberta, said the City of Red Deer inquired about registering the cemetery in 2005 but it could not be done because no legal land description was provided to the province.
He also said all applications for archaeological surveys must go through Alberta Culture and Community Spirit because that ministry is solely responsible for issues of historical significance.
“We take care of the recording and registering of burial sites while they (Culture and Community Spirit) take care of surveys,” said Traynor.
See also Bachusky column - OPINION
jbachusky@reddeer.greatwest.ca 309-5456
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