Old bones – update

More details unearthed on remains discovered at West Lake resort

The remains of nine individuals unearthed a West Lake resort more than a decade ago could befind a more permanent resting spot in the Pettet Cemetery located nearby.

Last week the Times told the story of the old cemetery unearthed near the restaurant at Isaiah Tubbs Resort on West Lake. Since then additional information has surfaced the reveals a clearer picture of who these folks were and what is likely to be their final resting place.

In the summer of 1999 the resort began the excavation of a very large hole to install two 20,000-litre water retention tanks beside its restaurant near the beach. Before the tanks were installed, a walker and his dog discovered bones in the excavated hole.

(Contrary to information reported last week the remains were not located under the foundation but rather adjacent to the restaurant.)

The OPP were called to investigate.

“We soon had about 20 officers on the site,” explained Dan O’Neil, manager of Isaiah Tubbs, recalling the day the site was cordoned off and police cars lined the roadway. “They thought they had discovered a mass grave. The red sand in the area had coloured the bones—giving them an eerie appearance.” Soon enough, however, a forensic pathologist arrived and quickly determined that the bones were very old and likely an organized gravesite—not a crime scene.

But that didn’t end the headaches for the resort. It took them days to unearth the remains; it would take more than a decade to put them back. Over the next few years the landowner spent nearly $30,000 collecting, investigating, researching and caring for the remains of these nine individuals who were buried at the site.

Contrary to information provided by the Registrar of Cemeteries for Ontario, Michael D’Mello, the remains no longer reside on the site. At the time of their discovery the remains were disinterred and moved to a storage facility in Kingston under the oversight of archaeology consultant Hugh Drexel.

They have been organized, examined and returned to discreet container putting “the right pieces in the right boxes.” The examination revealed that the bones likely belonged to the Tubbs family. The bones were buried in the Quaker tradition—meaning the bodies were buried in shrouds: “no earthly remains—not buttons, no boxes, no nails.” The graves were also very shallow—under less than three feet of earth.

The youngest person buried on the site was a 13-monthold infant. The most unusual was a very tall man—likely about six-foot, seven inches. Several individuals seem to have been stricken with cholera or typhus judging from the condition of the bone marrow.

O’Neil says a property plan has since been discovered that indicates a burial plot on the site. But at some point in the 1950s or 1960s the stones or markers were removed.

“There was a large cherry tree on a knoll nearby,” said O’Neil. “It is quite a nice spot. Somebody thought this out.” Ten years on, O’Neil is still waiting for a resolution. He would like to see the remains buried in the Pettet Cemetery, a Quaker burial site, located nearby the resort on West Lake. That cemetery has been closed since the 1960s but O’Neil is hoping the cemetery board will make an exception to allow the creation of a family plot on the site.

The sudden death of a former registrar put the file in limbo for several years. Now D’Mello, the current registrar, is seeking a resolution.

In December he announced his intention to declare the discovered burial site an “unapproved cemetery.” This is the first step in reaching a disposition agreement that would allow the bones to leave the storage facility in Kingston and be re-interred in the Pettet or another cemetery.

Descendants were given two weeks, from Dec. 23, to step forward stating their intention to act on behalf of the remains. This time has now lapsed and D’Mello says that no one has yet stepped forward seeking to be a representative of these remains. Barring any last minute claims, he intends to declare the site an “unapproved cemetery” in couple more weeks.

Then perhaps the process can begin to return the remains of the Tubbs family back to the earth from which they have been disturbed.

“It has been quite an interesting kettle of fish,” summed up O’Neil on the decade-long ordeal.