Stanley Park Cemetery
Mountain View Cemetery may have been Vancouverโs first official cemetery when it opened in 1886, but it certainly wasnโt the first. Bodies had been buried on Deadmanโs Island in Coal Harbour for thousands of years, and those who didnโt want their relatives interred alongside the socially undesirable, the diseased or unchristened, moved their burials further into Stanley Park.
The stretch of land from Brockton Point Lighthouse to the Nine OโClock Gun had always been a burial ground for the Indigenous people who lived there, but as Gastown was settled it also became an alternative burial ground known as the Pioneer Cemetery.
They believe that there are up to 200 bodies still buried there along the peninsula, including the remains of settlers, some Chinese people and the indigenous people who had abandoned the custom of above-ground burials.
For more newsworthy items, check the main AFHS News page at afhs.ab.ca/news.
