[Source: Bill Hess, Herald/Review] -- The remains of soldiers who died more than a century ago will have a new resting place in a “cemetery within a cemetery,” (pictured) said Joe Larson, administrator for Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery. From the mid 1860s to mid 1880s, soldiers from Fort Lowell were buried in what became an abandoned cemetery in downtown Tucson. At least 10 sets of identifiable graves and 50 containing the remains of unknown soldiers have been found in a military portion of the old cemetery, which experts said holds more than 1,000 burials in the entire burial place of slightly more than 4 acres, Larson said. “There could be more (military),” he said, adding some could be family members of soldiers. The cemetery in Tucson is located east of Stone Avenue between Toole Avenue and East Alameda Street. The cemetery was abandoned about a year before the United States entered World War I. The gravesites were covered by homes and later became a commercial area, as Tucson grew in the 20th century. The graveyard was primarily a site for civilian interments, with a small defined area, generally in what is an alley now, for military burials. The relocation of the graves is part of a multimillion-dollar project preparing the ground for a new Pima County and city of Tucson court complex, said Roger Anyon, program manager for the Pima County Cultural Resources and Historic Preservation Office. At least $10 million is budgeted for the project’s archaeological aspects during a multi-year period, he said. The identification of gravesites began in November and reburials are not expected to take place until early 2009. While that seems to be a long time off, there are many legal steps that must be done to ensure the treatment of the remains is done with dignity and they are provided to any known next-of-kin or “lineal descendent” group, such as Indian tribes, Anyon said. [Note: To read the full article, click here.]
