A new historical report and findings from a radar scan have cleared the way for the state to sell the north side of the Oregon State Hospital campus in Salem. Plans for the property call for housing and a city park to be developed there. .

Research by historian Christy Van Heukelem released Friday by the Department of Administrative Services, which owns the property, indicates a former cemetery was adjacent to Lee Mission Cemetery on property now owned by Salem Health between Center and D streets — not on the state-owned parcel.

Van Heukelem's report also shows no record of the exact location of the cemetery on the 47 acres the state is considering selling.

What happened to the remains of the 1,500 people buried before the cemetery was closed in 1913 is still a mystery.

“This information supports the belief that the bodies in the Asylum cemetery were disinterred and cremated,” Van Heukelem wrote.

The Department of Administrative Services also brought in a consultant to use ground penetrating radar at the site and found no evidence of human remains at the site, though it has yet to release its formal report.

“I can confirm that our consultant indicated that there were no findings consistent with graves or grave shafts, or other cemetery features common to the late 19th/early 20th century,” Department of Administrative Services spokesperson Liz Craig said.

“While remains may exist, the best technology currently available did not find evidence of them.”

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The Oregon State Hospital opened as the Oregon Insane Asylum in 1883 and a cemetery was started east of Lee Mission Cemetery for patients of the hospital who died and were not claimed by friends or family.

The report says maps of the exact dimensions of the cemetery were not kept, but it was located east of the Lee Mission Cemetery and bordered the Glen Creek Orphans Home.

A 1913 state law required the remains of anyone who died in a state-run institution to be cremated if unclaimed and authorized the bodies of those in the Asylum Cemetery to be dug up and cremated.

There are no records, however, of that happening.

The report states there are records of disinterment of some bodies after 1913, but those were at the request of friends and relatives to avoid their remains being cremated.

Records from funeral homes in the area show four records from 1914 and 1915 of a few bodies being dug up from the cemetery and cremated, but no large-scale disinterment.

The report says the disinterment could have been a task assigned to employees, prison inmates of patients from the state hospital and cremation could have taken place in the hospital-run incinerator.

None of those buried in the Asylum Cemetery were found among the urns for the unclaimed who were cremated at Oregon State Hospital when state researchers attempted to match urns with families in 2011.

From 1913 to 1916, the state prison earned $4,523 for convict labor at state institutions, but records do not indicate what work was performed, and no specific records show anyone being paid for a large-scale disinterment.

“The absence of any record to support the disinterment of over 1500 bodies seems odd,” the report says.

In 1948, a committee was formed to build a new building at Salem General Hospital, which was built on the former cemetery.

In preparation for the proposed building, two test pits were dug to evaluate the soil, one of the digs was likely in the Asylum Cemetery.

During those digs, however, no bodies or cemetery ornaments were found and “nothing was mentioned regarding the discovery of an old cemetery,” the report stated.

The land the state hospital formerly used as the cemetery was sold to Salem General Hospital, how Salem Health, and thus is not part of the land the state hospital is considering selling to become housing.

Craig said the Department of Administrative Services is waiting on completion of the subdivision and said final recording of the lots expected later this year.

For years Salem has shown interest in purchasing a 7-acre parcel of the land, which is currently used by community groups for recreation space, to build a community park. Yaquina Hall, located on the north side of the property, is slated for affordable housing.

bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler

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