Remains of the Day

 March 7, 1863 The Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel

Santa Cruz in the 1860's was very much a happening place. When you finish disinterring your relatives from your local churchyard, (moving them to either your own land, or perhaps to a plot at Evergreen), you could go and have dinner, a drink, a salt water bath, and perhaps enjoy live music.

Disinterment was rampant in the nineteenth century, whether it was due to dispute, love, or theft. (Cadavers were in demand for many reasons.) For the poor and the 'undesirables' of society, when met with their demise, usually ended up in a place called The Potter's Field. For 'proper' folk, it was something to be avoided. Yet every town cemetery had one, and some part of most public non denominational cemeteries created one. On our Evergreen Cemetery Maps, the locality of  its Potter's Field has been a challenge simply because of the incompleteness of our roster. We have time and structure fires to blame for our lack of records but it is interesting to note that our Chinese section AND the Potter's Field appear to overlap or quite possibly, the brambly steep hillside that is seen behind our Mason and G.A.R. sections are all that is left of what might have been the resting place of Santa Cruz' most unwanted. 

To test this theory, we asked for help-

Alert flags, handler color coded

The Institute of Canine Forensics came to our aid in the Spring of this year. Trained to locate human remains/burials in excess of 1000 years of age, these dogs and their handlers explored Evergreen with no knowledge of the locality of our PF. Some of the handlers had no previous knowledge of Evergreen's history. They simply explored our grounds, canine leading the way. When the canine came upon a suspect area, she or he gave an alert signal unique to their handler.

Urn side fragment
CSUMB Intern Jackie

Urn Base, Potter's Field
CSUMB Intern Jessica

The handler would then put down a small colored flag over the area in question. After their job was done, it would be our responsibility to find out if the dog was correct or not.  In the two sites we decided to excavate to confirm or deny the canine location, BOTH sites yielded stunning finds. When the canine sweep was completed, the number of unmarked burials in our Chinese section confirmed some of the unmarked burials on our roster, a little further up the hill than we thought. There were unmarked graves behind the G.A.R. plot too, just where the older maps had suggested our Potter's Field might have been.

Footer stone found two plots from origination locality at a depth of 10 inches ( hard mud.)

When the Unit returned for a second sweep one month later, they spent some time around plots that had headstones and some that contained enclosures but no headstone. Here, one canine in particular alerted us to some misplaced stones, buried for some time, by perhaps a previous renovation team. This type of 'reassignment' was common in the days when no maps were available and the interest in preservation was fleeting. Today, Evergreen is a priceless window into not only Santa Cruz' past, but the nineteenth century culture and its citizens who resided here, especially those that died untimely and suspect deaths. Ironically, I find that the folk whose grand monuments remain, their stories do not interest me as much as the unmarked grave of a young prostitute who died suspiciously at the hands of someone of society and wealth. And the graves of those that died tragically because of their dangerous livelihood? I need to find out more about their past. Who were they?  Why do we care? Why is it so important that we NOT forget them?

Piper,
 canine officer in charge