Potential for buried bodies stalls housing plans at Oregon State Hospital North Campus

Private and city developers have big plans for the former Oregon State Hospital North Campus in Salem, hoping to build apartments and single-family homes on the property.

But before anyone breaks ground, state officials who own the land have a question to answer: Are any bodies buried there?

The Department of Administrative Services, which owns Oregon State Hospital North Campus, is hiring a contractor to use ground-penetrating radar and search the site after tribal officials recently raised concerns about potential undisturbed remains.

State officials also are pursuing historic research into "what records exist of exhumations, cremations and the ultimate disposition of the cremains," said spokeswoman Elizabeth Craig.

"No existing cemetery has been discovered, and nothing relating to cemeteries is the result of any environmental review process," Craig said. "DAS does not have any documents confirming locations of past cemeteries."

The search may reveal new secrets in Oregon State Hospital's long history.

The Oregon State Insane Asylum opened in 1883. The Statesman Journal in 2003 described the asylum as "a dumping ground for the mentally incompetent or anyone considered by loved ones too difficult to handle."

The hospital had a cemetery for 30 years near Lee Mission Cemetery on D Street, the newspaper reported.

The Asylum Cemetery closed in the early 1910s, with state lawmakers ordering the remains to be exhumed in 1913. More than 1,500 people were buried at the Asylum Cemetery, local historian Susan Bell was quoted as saying in the article.

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"Often when a patient died at the Oregon State Insane Asylum, no one was willing to claim the body or pay for transporting it to a family burial plot," the Statesman Journal reported. "The cemetery filled quickly in 30 years."

The interred were believed to have ranged in age from children to older adults. Bodies that went unclaimed were supposed to be cremated.

A memorial to unclaimed remains was unveiled in 2014. However, it's unclear if any of the 1,500-plus people believed to have been buried at the Asylum Cemetery were in the urns at Oregon State Hospital.

When state researchers in 2011 used records to try and match urns with families, none matched with Asylum Cemetery burial records, according to a 2014 story in the Oregonian.

Officials still haven't found the remains that were supposed to be exhumed from the Asylum Cemetery, according to Oregon State Hospital spokeswoman Rebeka Gipson-King.

"In all the research that was done before we dedicated the memorial for the cremated remains in 2014, we were not able to find records that indicated what happened to the bodies that were exhumed from the cemetery," she told the Statesman Journal on Wednesday.

"Any records would have been a century old. All of the cremated remains in the memorial are from 1914-1973, which is when the crematorium on the hospital grounds was in operation," Gipson-King said in an email.

This year's radar search is coming from an abundance of caution to make sure no bodies remain underground. The North Campus is 25 acres bounded by Center and D streets NE, according to state officials.

Briece Edwards, with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, pointed to an inconsistent record of tracking cemeteries at state institutions, namely hospitals, orphanages and prisons. He characterized it as a nationwide issue.

"Sometimes records are spotty," said Edwards, manager of the tribes' historic preservation office. The tribes' conversation with the agency was intended to ensure officials are taking steps to fulfill their due diligence, he said.

For him, it's a question of the burial grounds' size; cemeteries don't always stay within their borders, he said.

"It's not so much about confirming where the cemetery is, it's about confirming where it isn't," Edwards said.

Discovering tribal members' remains is a concern. "But honestly, we're dealing with cemeteries, so we're really concerned about all people," Edwards said. It's about respect and reverence for people who have passed away, he said.

The radar search should be finished this summer. "We expect a site visit with the consultant in early June and site work to be completed by July," Craig said.

The work is stalling housing plans. Salem officials have long been seeking to buy the land from the state so they can transform Yaquina Hall, one of the campus' remaining buildings, into affordable housing units overseen by the Salem Housing Authority. Salem also is planning to buy land for a park.

Earlier:Yaquina Hall apartments on Oregon State Hospital campus delayed until 2020

"Given the historic and archaeological issues, the earliest the city can close on the Yaquina and park properties would be January 2020," City Manager Steve Powers recently wrote to city councilors and the mayor. 

"We will have a much better understanding of the options, requirements, and timelines at the beginning of July after the ground penetrating radar work is completed," Powers wrote.

Meanwhile, Salem developer Mountain West Investment Corp. is planning to build single-family homes and apartments on the campus.

At this point, the radar work isn't likely to disrupt that project. Construction is expected to start next year, and the goal is for the first units to open in 2021, according to Richard Berger, Mountain West project manager and director of acquisitions.

Jonathan Bach has been a business and City Hall reporter with the Statesman Journal since 2016. To support his work, Subscribe to the Statesman Journal. Contact him by email at jbach@statesmanjournal.com, call (503) 399-6714 or follow him on Twitter @jonathanmbach.