Crews investigating human remains

Archeological crews and members of Indigenous communities spent Monday sifting soil on a residential site where human remains were found in Port Colborne in early March.

It was the start of a burial investigation being carried out by Kitchener and Hamilton-based Archaeological Research Associates (ARA) on behalf of the Sugarloaf Street property owner.

“We’ll be here the next couple of days. We’re in the very early stages,” said ARA’s Janet Gardner.

On March 10, contractor Emburgh’s Backhoe Service was digging in the front yard of the home, between 239 and 229 Sugarloaf St. and across from the Port Colborne urgent care centre and New Port Centre, when its workers discovered human remains.

Work was then halted and Niagara Regional Police forensic officers and the regional coroner’s office investigated the remains.

Police determined it was not a criminal matter and turned the site over to the Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries.

The ministry looks after cemeteries and burial grounds in the province — to either designate them under the Ontario Heritage Act, part of Heritage Conservation Districts or as archeological sites.

Gardner said historical research shows there was a graveyard in the area of Sugarloaf and Isabel streets.

“It may be related to that,” she said of the discovery in March.

In a previous interview, Port Colborne Historical and Marine Museum archivist Michelle Vosburgh said the cemetery began in the 1830s during a cholera outbreak along the Welland Canal.

It was active until at least 1900 and was called Gravelly Bay Burying Ground. It was never an official cemetery, but there were burials with markings.

The area near the home, nearby H.H. Knoll Lakeview Park, is all reclaimed land and once formed the Lake Erie shoreline.

Indigenous remains and artifacts have been found in Port Colborne during infrastructure work on Tennessee Avenue and Lakeshore Road near Oakridge Crescent as recently as 2015.

Gardner said the further her group investigates, the more it will learn and know about the remains on the property and if any are Indigenous.

The work will focus on the front yard of the home where the remains were found, Gardner said.

The group had two sifters set up and were checking the soil placed on them.

DAVE JOHNSON TORSTAR FILE PHOTO A Niagara Regional Police forensics unit officer looks over a home under construction on Sugarloaf Street in Port Colborne, where human remains were found by a contractor working on the residence in early March.