The Juneau Empire reports that construction workers digging outside of the Gastineau Community School in Douglas, Alaska came across an overlooked grave Friday.
Before the community school was in place, the location occupied an old graveyard. During the 1960s, the city chose to relocate the graves in order to make room for the community school. Evidently, one was accidentally overlooked.
The below-ground headstone of a Chilkat man from Klukwan, who was laid to rest in 1927, was unearthed by the recent construction efforts. The discovery of the marker, belonging to Sam Goldstein, halted construction for the day.
The director of the Juneau Engineering Department, Rorie Watt, told the Empire, "We had not at all expected to find anything there… we researched and realized it was a man of Native origin, and we had a brief ceremony with some people from Sealaska and some people from the region where the man was from."
Officials said that the excavation was nearly complete when the gravesite was discovered, so other remains being found at the site is an unlikely occurrence.
To read more, see the Juneau Empire's story here.