Remains Found During St. Mary's Hospital Expansion 2006

2008 - Madison, WI

On what is now the grounds of St. Mary's Hospital, where the old Catholic cemetery once was. First a single skeleton was found, then a deteriorating box of bones was discovered under the sidewalk in front of the Alumni Hall entrance.

Records show the remains of the old catholic cemetery, two-acres in size, should have been fully moved to the new cemetery in the mid-1800s. Some remains in the box likely predate even the old cemetery. At one time there was a 75-foot tall dividing ridge here that connected Lake Wingra to Lake Monona.

It was there Native Americans built effigy mounds and early pioneers buried their dead. The ridge was excavated in the early 1900s for gravel to make road beds. The bones of three Caucasians and two Native Americans were in the box. It's likely these bones were found when the ridge was being dug away and someone put them all in the box together. To find parts of a coffin intact usually depends on well-draining sandy soil, like what's found at the construction site. Resurrection Cemetery donated labor and space for the burial

Madison's first Catholic Cemetery - Catholic/Greenbush Cemetery - Established in 1845 - Located on "Dead Lake Ridge"

It didn't take long to realize Greenbush Cemetery was too small and more space would be needed. In 1863 land was bought and a new cemetery was formed that would eventually be named Resurection. The bodies here were moved shortly after the turn of the century.



Similarly, remains were found on Bascom Hill in 1918 during construction.