Broken gravestones left discarded, unclaimed near Penticton cemetery

Broken gravestones mystery

Photo: Sarah Crookall

Broken gravestones in junk pile northeast of Penticton.

Broken and discarded gravestones near Lakeview Cemetery are a mystery to both the City of Penticton and the neighbouring funeral home.

On Thursday, Castanet was alerted to a pile of junk near the Paupers' Graves area adjacent to the cemetery, which is off the KVR Trail.

It includes multiple granite headstones.

Visible dates of death inscribed on the headstones are all decades old, from the 70s, 80s and 90s.

The City of Penticton, which operates Lakeview Cemetery, told Castanet the visible names on the broken stones are not those of anyone who was ever registered at the cemetery.

City parks crews inspected the site and determined that it is actually on private land owned by Providence Funeral Homes.

Providence owner Nolan Adam said the junk pile and broken headstones were news to him, too.

"It's the first I heard of it," Adam, who has been the owner for a year and a half, said Friday morning.

"There's been a lot of owners before, and I'm as concerned as you are that there are old [grave] markers there."

He said sometimes, old markers need to be replaced, and speculated it is possible that previous owners or operators may have tossed them in the area.

"It concerns me that there's garbage and remnants of old stones down there. We'll go take a look, and we'll remove what we can as soon as we can."

It is still unclear where the headstones originated.

If any of the headstones or names look familiar to you, reach out to [email protected]

Photo: Sarah Crookall

Discarded gravestones in Penticton.