good afternoon today we're at a pioneer cemetery near lytton british columbia let's go and explore
founded during the fraser canyon gold rush of 1858 and 1859 the village of lytton was named after sir
edward bulwer english writer and politician who coined such phrases as the pen is mightier than
the sword and it was a dark and stormy night the cemetery sits on a peaceful hillside overlooking
highway 1 at the south entrance to lytton with grave markers scattered amongst the pine trees
this was originally the fenced-in graveyard of
saint paul's anglican church which was constructed in 1872
in 1897 the church was moved to a different location but the cemetery
remained by the mid-1980s over a hundred years after it was constructed the cemetery had fallen
into disrepair volunteers decided to help uncover the gold mine of history hidden beneath the tall
grass and pine needles however they had little information to go on plots had been randomly
assigned and there were no records kept of who was buried there or where the burials had taken place
surveyors created a grid of 160 different survey points across the cemetery and volunteers assisted
with the painstaking task of clearing the site and recording the details of the markers that
they uncovered the oldest tombstone found in the graveyard reads 1876 but many of the
wooden markers have crumbled and rotted away so there may be even older pioneers resting here
the headstones and markers discovered revealed that this is the resting place
of many pioneers and first nations families who resided in and around
lytton before during and after the gold rush
one notable grave is the archbishop of richard small the archdeacon on horseback who worked
in lytton from 1884 to 1909 the archbishop supervised the construction of st bartholomew's
hospital in 1893 and also oversaw the opening of saint george's residential school in 1902
as i look around i can't help but notice the harsh realities of pioneer times
many of the markers are for children
this one here with the ornamental lamb on top is for a child no more than three years old
and this set of markers here is for three children age five seven and two
who all passed away within three days of each other
even the life expectancy is much shorter than you'd see today
this man here passed away at the young age of 35. as did this one as well
thanks for joining us hope you enjoyed learning a little about this historic pioneer cemetery
you can check out our interactive map if
you want to see other historic and abandoned places that we've been to
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