ExploreNorth, your resource center for exploring the circumpolar North

Return to the Home Page The ExploreNorth Blog About ExploreNorth Contact ExploreNorth

Search ExploreNorth





The Cemeteries at Dyea, Alaska

by Murray Lundberg


A Guide to Dyea, Alaska

Alaska & Yukon Genealogy Resources


Grave of Wilbert Garfield Packard at Dyea, Alaska     What follows is a complete photo-inventory of all 52 markers in the two cemeteries at Dyea, Alaska. I took these photographs in January 2001. It includes captions with all the visible text on each headboard or monument, and other related information, in some cases as links to other sites.

    The most famous cemetery is the Slide Cemetery, where the people killed in the April 3, 1898 "Palm Sunday Avalanche" are buried. Nobody knows exactly how many people were killed or who is buried here - there are huge discrepancies in the accounts of the day, both in numbers and names. Although the generally accepted figure has been in the 65-73 range, Karl Gurcke of the National Park Service at Skagway, who has done extensive research on the avalanche and its victims, feels that the number may be closer to 100.

    The other, much smaller cemetery is a bit closer to the road, and contains bodies that were moved when the original Dyea cemetery was being washed away by the Taiya River in the 1970s. The graves there are for Bert Meeker, Gus Taylor, F.L. Fetter, children John J. Mason and Alice Mason, Mrs. Sophia Matthews and James Leo Workman. There is also a small granite monument honouring some of the native people who died in the area - it is listed here under "Johns".

    There are six headboards in the Slide Cemetery which are illegible. One is thought to be for C. Beck, whose headboard was still intact in 1979. The others are unknown.

Victims of the Palm Sunday Avalanche - this complete listing from four major publications shows clearly the difficulty in establishing who was killed.

The view from The Stone House on the Chilkoot Pass in 1898

The view from the Stone House in 1898 - the approximate location of the Palm Sunday Avalanche is at the lowest part of the valley. The photograph is by Winter & Pond, from Alaska by Miner Bruce, published by 1898 by G.P. Putnam's Son.




Peter (?) Andersen
Died April 12, 1898


O.W. Anderson
Died April 3, 1898


S. Atkins
Died April 3, 1898


E.D. Atwood
Died April 3, 1898


W. Carl
Died April 3, 1898


William Carroll
Died April 3, 1898


Walter Chapper
Died April 3, 1898


J.P. Clark
Died April 3, 1898


Thomas Culleden
Died April 3, 1898
Ed Doran
Died April 3, 1898


J.E. Doran
Died April 3, 1898


James Edward Doran
Died April 3, 1898


A. Englund
Died April 3, 1898


F.L. Fetter
Died March 22, 1898


V. Fetter
Died April 4, 1898


Con Gephard
Died April 3, 1898


T. Glinn
Died April 3, 1898


Allen Gray
Died April 3, 1898


S. Grimes
Died April 3, 1898


W. Grimes
Died April 3, 1898
E.P. Haines
Died April 3, 1898


C. P. Harrison
Died April 3, 1898


E.T. Hutton
Died April 3, 1898


Tagish Johns

Dyea Johns
Died: ?


G. Leon
Died April 3, 1898


Daniel McLinnan
Died May 28, 1898


John J. Mason
Died June 16, 1899

Alice Mason
Died November 16, 1898


Mrs. Sophia Matthews
Died: ?


Mrs. A.U. Maxon
Died April 3, 1898


Bert Meeker
Died March 3, 1898

Meeker died in a fire that destroyed the Douglass Bunk House and Saloon in Dyea - see that story here.


John A. Morgan
Died April 3, 1898


J.C. Murphy
Died April 3, 1898


George L. Osborn
Died April 26, 1898


Wilbert Garfield Packard
Died: ?


J. Pierce
Died April 3, 1898


W.L. Riley
Died April 3, 1898


George Riser
Died April 3, 1898


Jeff Saley
Died April 3, 1898


G.F. Smith
Died April 3, 1898


Frank Sprague
Died April 3, 1898


S. Stevenson
Died April 3, 1898


Gus Taylor
Died March 3, 1898

Taylor died in a fire that destroyed the Douglass Bunk House and Saloon in Dyea - see that story here.

George Uhlin
Died April 3, 1898


L. Weideleiu
Died April 3, 1898


James Leo Workman
Died October 29, 1900


Noscitur (likely a misspelling of "nescitur," Latin for "(it) is not known.")
Died May, 1898


Unknown


Unknown


Unknown


Unknown


Unknown


Unknown



Buried but Lost: Information on people reported to have been buried at Dyea but now lost.

John John McCafferty
From Montgomery County, Missouri
Died during the week prior to March 12, 1898, of "Tuberculos fever".
Death and burial at Dyea reported in 2 sentences in The Dyea Trail of March 12, 1898.


Peter Peterson
Died April 16, 1898
Death and burial at Dyea reported in a newspaper article.


Thomas E. See
From Montgomery County, Missouri
Died during the week prior to March 12, 1898, of "Tuberculos fever".
Death and burial at Dyea reported in 2 sentences in The Dyea Trail of March 12, 1898.