Yellowknife (Aug 11/03) - There are two glorious green spaces in this city that are protected from housing and grocery stores, and will retain their tranquillity for all time.

They are our cemeteries.

Jackfish Lake peeks though spruce trees as you drive through iron gates into one 57-year-old resting place of Yellowknife citizens, Lakeview Cemetery.

Quiet surrounds the place, cutting it off from the noisy suburbs of the city, despite being sandwiched between a Yamaha dealer and a gravel pit.

A lone runner clomps past, emerging briefly from the woods near the Frame Lake trail, then a mountain biker chugs along close behind.

Cemeteries are part of our daily landscape. They are well-maintained and full of trees, flowers, and grass. When development eats up nature and spits out suburbs in its place, cemeteries are often the biggest green spaces left.

Distinctly Northern

While the community services department for the city maintains the grounds, individual graves are left for family to tend to.

This is where Northern character shines through: in the rough hewn handmade crosses, and lovingly placed cherubs scattered on plots.

Sites are haphazardly distinct. A pick axe marks one grave, with an engraved brass plaque attached. At another plot, a mosaic tiled tombstone glitters with colour in the sun.

Canoe paddles stake the resting places of passed-on water lovers. A picture of Elvis Presley reveals the musical tastes of another.

It's not often you'll find such personally-designed gravesites south of the 49th parallel, where generally-uniform pink, red or grey granite tombstones dominate the cemetery landscape.

Lakeview Cemetery reminds us more of the rowdy individuals who made a life in a harsh climate.

Here, a lone hockey stick sits atop one grave, reminiscent of the passions of its resident.

Picket fences protect many graves. Chairs and benches offer seating for frequent visitors. At one site, a granite Inukshuk casts a large shadow on the grass.

Being careful to walk lightly and to respect resting places, you can glean Northern heritage with a walk around the blocks of Lakeview.

Sand, rocks and permafrost

Walter Patterson, who died in 1946, was the first official resident of the cemetery.

With 1,269 plots dug into the sandy earth over five hectares, Lakeview has plenty of capacity yet, says Andrew Morton, facilities manager for the city.

Being in the rocky North, finding a hospitable site is hard enough, but the city faces other cemetery challenges because of the long winters.

Each year Morton and his staff dig 20 new sites for potential "residents," because they can't dig through the ground past October.

"It's problematic due to the permafrost," Morton says.

Scattered "reserved" signs rest on some of these pre-dug graves. It is more than a little spooky to walk past a spot waiting so patiently for an inhabitant who may have booked ahead.

Back Bay: older still

If you follow Jackfish creek down to Great Slave Lake, the Back Bay Cemetery will appear out of the trees.

Not in use anymore, this pioneer gravesite was a transportation corridor for access to the townsite in the early 20th century.

Ben Nind and a team of helpers completed a cleanup project in the cemetery in 1988. According to Nind, prospectors, trappers, missionaries and just about everyone would pass by the gravesite on their way in and out of town.

The trail is still there, and the research committee restored the wooden crosses and picket fences of the graves and took an inventory of the site.

Fifteen years later, nature has taken over again. The 35 graves are overtaken by wildflowers and poplar trees.

But it's peaceful to meander through the crosses, tucked into a ravine running into the bay.

The first burial at the pioneer gravesite was in the winter of 1936. John McEchern, a labourer at Negus Mine, had committed suicide rather than face working underground.

Since McEchern, Northerners were buried there until 1945. Then the town started burying its dead in the Lakeview Cemetery.

According to Nind, many people venture to the Back Bay cemetery.

Nature is intent on reclaiming the site.

Four graves along the creek bank are in danger of eroding into the creek.

Nind estimates the creek bank erodes a foot every two years, threatening to wash the already precarious sites' occupants into the bay.

There is history in the rituals surrounding death, and the reverence Northerners treat their deceased is apparent in the places they bury them.

So take a walk in Yellowknife's two cemeteries. Take in the history of the people who once lived here, and enjoy a distinctly Northern experience.