Dane Gibson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 10/99) - The city has identified four graves at Back Bay Cemetery that must be moved to Lakeview Cemetery before freezeup because of erosion there.

City of Yellowknife director of community services, Grant White, said they will be moving four bodies, but they only know the name of one of them -- Horace A. Carling.

"We've been running ads requesting information from the public (to identify the unmarked graves) and we've received some feedback but no real specifics on the three bodies," White said.

"They're not exposed yet but there's no doubt that they would be if we didn't do something right away."

He said they must get permits from the Department of Health for each disinterment. A requirement of issuing the permits is that they run an ad in the paper for a month. That month ends Sept. 15.

City of Yellowknife facility manager Tony Burge is handling the operation. He said it's been difficult collecting information on the unmarked graves at the cemetery because the last burial took place there in 1947.

Still, he's hoping anyone who has any knowledge about the people buried at Back Bay Cemetery will come forward before they begin.

"We're trying to be as compassionate as we can to the families of these people. If there are family members who want to have a ceremony, we'll go out of our way to accommodate them," Burge said.

He said after these four bodies are moved, the other 31 graves in the cemetery should be safe from the eroding bank for years to come.

"We'll be digging up the caskets and graves with hand shovels," Burge said.

"Once we get this done, we don't anticipate any further erosion problems in the near future."