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SIERRA VISTA — The remains of soldiers who died more than a century ago will have a new resting place in a “cemetery within a cemetery,” 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.
  
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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.
Reburial of remains
Larson was hoping the military remains would have been released by October 2008 so the reburial could take place on Veterans Day of that year, but he understands the longer process is needed to meet the agreements signed by a number of agencies.
If the release of the remains is done in March 2009, the ceremonial reburials can take place on Memorial Day of that year, he said.
The military portion of the reburials to the state-operated veterans cemetery in Sierra Vista is called “Cavalry Solders Relocation Project.”
The local area also must finding funding to construct the cemetery within a cemetery concept envisioned by Larson and others. He said fundraising efforts cannot be delayed.
The federal government is paying for grave markers for identifiable remains, Larson said.
Arrangements have been made with the U.S. government to have grave markers for the identifiable remains to be the same as what was provided in the late 1800s. The markers will include name, rank, date of birth, date of death and unit of assignment for those whose remains are known and have information available.
But, Larson said, there are few available funds beyond that. He believes the local community will help with donations, volunteering material or work “to bring some historical connection to the past here.”
An area of about an acre has already been identified as the site for the reburials, Larson said as he pointed out the place Tuesday.
Although there is no architectural rendering of the site, there is a concept line drawing in which part of the ground will be enclosed in a 3-foot high stone wall with a wrought-iron gate entrance.
If that may seem familiar to people, it is meant to be. Larson said he wants to create an atmosphere like that at the Old Post Cemetery on Fort Huachuca, which has a similar enclosure and entrance.
The people being reburied at the state-operated cemetery are from the period that the fort was founded — in 1877 — and the connection should be visibly the same, Larson said.
One of the founders of what was originally Camp Huachuca, and now is the fort, has a Tucson area connection.
Samuel Marmaduke Whitside, commander of Company B, 6th U.S. Cavalry was from Fort Lowell, the Tucson-area Army post in the 1800s, where soldiers of the 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th Cavalry Regiments as the 1st, 8th and 12 Infantry Regiments were stationed at different times. All the cavalry regiments and the 12th Infantry Regiment also served at Fort Huachuca.
In the past, reburial of remains has occurred at the Old Post Cemetery.
In 1928, there were 76 unknowns reburied on the post from Fort San Carlos, said fort spokeswoman Angela Moncur. The relocation was needed because of the construction of the Coolidge Dam.
“They were believed to have been killed in an Apache raid in the last quarter of the 19th century,” Moncur said, noting the remains were put into a mass grave at the Old Post Cemetery.
‘Dignity and honor’
Larson said the remains of the unknowns from Tucson will be placed in individual graves with some kind of a memorial.
The remains will be in boxes that will measure 34 inches long, 8 inches wide and slightly more than 6 inches deep, a standard of the Arizona State Museum.
The proposed containers concern him, and he is looking at approaching Buena High School to see if shop students will build more substantial boxes of the same size to hold the remains.
“We want to give them dignity and honor,” Larson said.
In the early 1900s, the same remains, including the military remains, were moved from the Tucson cemetery. But, Larson said, only head and torso were reburied in some cases, living limbs behind. He said the body parts will be rejoined for reburial on the Sierra Vista area cemetery.
Anyon said care is taken to ensure human remains are treated with respect. He said that can be seen by what happening in Tucson to ensure the reburials are done, even if there is a delay in constructing the new court complex.
A team of people, including archaeologists and those doing “non-destructive” lab on the remains, ensure the process is done within the law and the needs of the various groups who may have ancestors buried in the old Tucson cemetery, he said.
Most of the other remains will probably be reburied at the All Faiths Cemetery on Tucson’s eastside, Anyon said.
Education needed
The Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery Foundation, an existing group, is a tax deductible organization that will be raising the funds for the reburials, Larson said.
The foundation has a board consisting of a number of area veteran groups. Larson said a committee to oversee the fundraising and ceremony for the reburials will likely be needed.
Larson also hopes Fort Huachuca will provide assistance during at the reburial ceremony, to include B Troop, 4th U.S. Cavalry Regiment (Memorial).
The foundation also must educate the public about the historical importance of the project. Larson has no doubts area residents will respond.
Of course, it will help to know how much the project will cost. That will depend on what will be needed for constructing the reburial site.
Anyon said it is important former military personnel be buried with other veterans, which is what this project accomplishes.
Larson agrees.
What better place than having veterans from Arizona’s territorial past reburied in an area of “recent veteran decedents, all who served the nation,” he said.
For information about the Cavalry Soldiers Reburial Project contact Joe Larson at 458-7144 or by e-mail at jlarson@azdvs.gov.
SENIOR REPORTER Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.
Anita Cox wrote on Jun 13, 2007 2:11 PM: