Individual Page


Notes
a. Note:   The following is an excellent website reporting those who were killed crossing the Chilkoot Trail, buried in an avalanche on 3 April 1898: http://explorenorth.com/library/history/bl_dyeacemetery.htm
  Thanks to Murray Lundberg, photographer, January 2001. we have pictures of the markers erected in their memory, The one, of Grave 47 for a W. Carl, San Franciso, and the other, around the bend, of Grave 39 for William Carroll, San Francisco.
  Lundberg added: "The most famous cemetery is the Slide Cemetery, where the people killed in the April 3, 1898 "Palm Sunday Avalanche" are buried. Nobody knows exactly how many people were killed or who is buried here - there are huge discrepancies in the accounts of the day, both in numbers and names. Although the generally accepted figure has been in the 65-73 range, Karl Gurcke of the National Park Service at Skagway, who has done extensive research on the avalanche and its victims, feels that the number may be closer to 100.
  The other, much smaller cemetery is a bit closer to the road, and contains bodies that were moved when the original Dyea cemetery was being washed away by the Taiya River in the 1970s. The graves there are for Bert Meeker, Gus Taylor, F.L. Fetter, children John J. Mason and Alice Mason, Mrs. Sophia Matthews and James Leo Workman. There is also a small granite monument honouring some of the native people who died in the area - it is listed here under "Johns".
  There are six headboards in the Slide Cemetery which are illegible. One is thought to be for C. Beck, whose headboard was still intact in 1979. The others are unknown." Perhaps the first news article concerning this tragedy was in the Skaguay News on 4 April 1898 found at http://www.arcticwebsite.com/goldrushAvala.html


RootsWeb.com is NOT responsible for the content of the GEDCOMs uploaded through the WorldConnect Program. The creator of each GEDCOM is solely responsible for its content.