Old Missoula

Skeleton Uncovered Within City Limits

Diggers on East Side Make Discovery

A skeleton was discovered a few days ago by workmen who were digging the ditch for water pipes for the Missoula Light and Water company, on the alley between Cherry and Poplar streets. The skeleton was enclosed in the remains of a casket and was found in the cellar of an old house. It was of a man and when measured it was more than six feet tall and had a very prominent jaw bone.

Wild theories and rumors which started among the men were quickly laid at rest when one of them remembered that that portion of the East side was many years ago a burying ground. Many whites were buried there in the early days of Missoula’s settlement, but there were more Indians and Chinese than whites. First conjectures that the skeleton was that of a Chinese were disapproved by the shape of the jaw bone, and the height of the skeleton. The workmen were about equally divided however, as to whether or not it was an Indian or a white man.

The bones were found by the contractor, I. Bramsen, who was in charge of digging the ditch. The finding of the skeleton started older men of the squad to reminiscing and many stories were told of the time when wealthy Chinese were buried in the old burying ground.

“I can remember when they would bury Chinese here and also at the poor farm,” said one workman. “That was about 20 years ago. I was just a kid in school and with about four others I used to come out here after Chinese funerals and get the food and candies the Chinese put on the graves of their dead. Sometimes there would be roast pig, little cakes, candies and Chinese nuts, and we used to have some great times getting and eating the stuff.”

Other men also recalled the days when as kids they robbed the Chinese graves with no thought of disrespect – thinking only of the “good eats.”

The skeleton and what remained of the casket were put in the bottom of the ditch and covered over by the workmen. There are many mounds still visible and recognizable in the vacant lots of the section near Jumbo hill, but all markers are gone. No on has been buried there since the new cemetery was made west of Missoula.

The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on September 09, 1923.

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