Westfield, Ind.—
Construction crews made a surprising discovery while working at a site in Westfield. These crews were doing water work when they found what's being called "historic" human bones.University of Indianapolis archaeologists were in Westfield Monday, along Union Street at the site of the construction project where the human remains were accidentally discovered.
"It's an adult, but no specific age or sex right now. It's sometimes difficult in the ground to get a good feel because sometimes bones look big, but it's actually a female or they look small and it's actually a male," said Dr. Christopher Schmidt from UIndy.
"This whole area is actually a part of our downtown revitalization area called the Grand Junction. Part of the reconstruction is a landscaping of this cemetery park." said Westfield Mayor Andy Cook.
"We did a ground penetrating radar to show any disturbances that would be in the ground and there was a disturbance in that area, but that's also where a water spicket was put in in the 60's to water the gardens was located," said Melody Jones, parks director for the City of Westfield.
The area is called the Martha Doan Memorial Garden was used as a cemetery between 1834 and 1889 for Quakers. Later, it was lost in time as many overgrown trees came up grass weeds up until about 1960 when the city of Westfield took over the area.
"Unfortunately, the Quakers didn't normally mark their graves and the stones were removed and kind of put in a line in the back of the cemetery in 1960," said Jones.
"To encounter remains accidentally is very common the longer we live in Indiana. That means more of our ancestors are in the ground and we're more likely to bump into them and accidentally disturb them. They can be ancient remains or historic remains or whatever. We try and treat them all the same. We try and be very respectful," said Dr. Schmidt.
Archaeologists will spend the next couple of days here excavating the site, gathering all the artifacts they can. They'll take them back to a lab and do a study on the bones and then those bones will be taken back here to their final resting place. The city's project at Martha Doan Memorial Garden should be completed by the end of the year.
