Human remains at Eleven Park: What we know from public records
INDIANAPOLIS (MIRROR INDY) — Archaeologists have uncovered nearly 90 graves containing human remains as well as dozens of isolated bones at the former Diamond Chain site, according to reburial plans submitted to the state on behalf of Indianapolis-based developer Keystone Group.
The plans, obtained by Mirror Indy through a public records request, offers a glimpse of what’s been found at the site of the proposed Eleven Park development since Keystone confirmed remains had been found in December.
Keystone has previously revealed little about what workers and archaeologists have discovered at the site, which occupies four historic cemeteries dating back to the 19th century. The process of exhuming those remains is governed by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, and the company’s spokesperson has said it’s been adhering to plans approved by the state agency.
In addition to human remains, site workers have uncovered more than 100 headstone fragments and Native American stone artifacts related to toolmaking, according to the state records and information provided by Keystone’s archaeological consultant in response to Mirror Indy’s questions.
Human remains at Eleven Park: What’s been found so far?
Keystone’s revised reburial plan, dated May 10, said site workers uncovered 90 burial shafts that contained human remains. That number has since been revised to 87, at least in public statements made by Keystone and its archaeological consultant, Linda Weintraut.
Weintraut, whose firm was hired by both Keystone and the city, attributed the revision to the ongoing scientific process.
Among those remains: a set of remains enclosed in an iron coffin and a “well-preserved individual,” according to the plan.
In addition to the burials, site workers found more than 82 “isolated human remain skeletal elements,” which are individual bones or pieces of bone that could not be associated with a specific interment. Ten other grave shafts were discovered but were either empty or contained coffin fragments but no human remains.
It’s unclear how many individuals have been located so far or how many burial shafts contained multiple people. That research is ongoing, Weintraut said.
Some remains were impacted by the development of the former Diamond Chain campus, according to the plan. Some of the isolated bone fragments, for example, were recovered around concrete foundations or under removed floor slabs.
There are few other details about what was found.
Other findings: Headstone remnants and Native American items
Site workers also uncovered 143 remnants of headstones, although many of them were fragments and none of them were directly associated with identified burials, according to Keystone’s reburial plan.
That plan also proposes pulverizing the stone markers. But in response to Mirror Indy’s emailed questions, Weintraut said the fate of the stones has not been finalized.
“There remains much documentation to be completed before anything can be done with the grave markers,” Weintraut said, adding that Keystone could include them in their memorialization or in public art if museums and historians are not interested in them.
They also found “precontact” artifacts, according to the plan, which is another way to refer to Native American items. These are not Native American human remains, Weintraut said, but rather stone debris related to toolmaking. It was not surprising to find these materials, given the proximity to the White River, she said.
Those materials would be sorted and cataloged and later reinterred in an appropriate cemetery.
Where and when were the remains found?
Human remains were discovered within the area of the North Burying Ground, which has also been called Peck Cemetery or the Peck Addition, during the demolition of the Diamond Chain factory. The demolition, and removal of burials, occurred between Dec. 4, 2023 and April 15, 2024.
In a May press release issued by Keystone, a company spokesperson said the burials had been found “across six acres” of the site. It’s not clear if those remains were concentrated in a single area or how deeply workers dug throughout those six acres.
Keystone has not pursued a full excavation of the site. Instead, archaeologists have monitored the demolition of the former Diamond Chain factory to watch for human remains or artifacts. When remains were discovered, work stopped within a 100-foot radius of the discovery, state officials were notified, and archaeologists carefully removed the remains, according to Miller as well as plans approved by state officials last year.
Weintraut, meanwhile, said it would be inappropriate to provide more specific information about where remains were found at this point, and she and Keystone spokeswoman Alexandra Miller declined to say whether the company and its team of experts were confident that no other human remains were present in those six acres.
Excavation of the remains “was performed with every discovery made by our expert consultants and followed all guidelines” provided by the state’s division of preservation and archaeology, Miller said.
What will happen to what was found at the site?
Most of the human remains will be analyzed by Jeremy Wilson, bioarchaeologist at Indiana University Indianapolis, to determine characteristics such as their sex, race and even details about their health.
If DNR approves the reburial plan, Keystone will have the remains reinterred at the westside Mount Jackson Cemetery as early as this summer. Like the Greenlawn cemeteries, Mount Jackson dates back to the 19th century with burials there as early as 1816.
Human remains will be placed in wooden boxes. Fully intact remains will be reinterred with artifacts from their burial in a single wooden box. If multiple partial remains were found in a single burial shaft, they will share a wooden box in order to “maintain their contextual relationship.”
Skeletal remains found close together would be reinterred in the same general arrangement as they were found. The remains would be interred near one another at Mount Jackson, marking a “Greenlawn Burial Area,” according to the plan and reporting by Mirror Indy.
Can Mount Jackson accommodate the burials?
In response to the initial draft of the reburial plan, DNR officials requested additional information and a revised plan from Keystone’s archeological contractor, including whether there were sufficient records to ensure that no unmarked graves in Mount Jackson would be disturbed in the process of reburying Greenlawn remains.
In the revised plan, Keystone’s archaeologist acknowledged that additional archaeological work may be required at Mount Jackson unless the company could determine no one had been buried at the site that’s been selected for Greenlawn reinterments. The iron coffin discovered at the Diamond Chain site would be interred before other remains, and an archaeologist would be at Mount Jackson to monitor whether the reburial disturbs additional remains.
Leon Bates, a local historian who has been researching the Greenlawn cemeteries as part of the city’s community advisory group, has raised concerns about whether Mount Jackson would be able to accommodate a large number of reinterments. He pointed to historical records that say the cemetery could not accommodate additional burials.
Miller, Keystone’s spokesperson, said the company is confident there are no burials in this area of Mount Jackson because it has been designated as a pathway since the cemetery’s founding and has never been used for burials. Any reinterments would be part of a work plan approved by DNR.
The westside cemetery currently has capacity for 120 burial plots but could potentially accommodate an additional 800 reinterments, according to Weintraut.
What about remains at the city’s Henry Street bridge site?
The city of Indianapolis has its own project that intersects with the historic cemeteries.
South of Keystone’s proposed development, the city intends to build a portion of the Henry Street bridge project, which will connect the former Diamond Chain site to the Elanco headquarters on the west side of the White River. That project has already uncovered human remains, and the city expects to uncover more.
In response to Mirror Indy’s records request, DNR provided dozens of pages of archaeological plans and reports for the city’s bridge project.
Most of those documents pertained to the west side of the river; work has not yet started on the east, where the cemeteries were located.
In January, the city’s Department of Public Works revealed that workers had unearthed human remains six months prior during utility work. According to a press release, archaeologists in July found an “isolated human skeletal element” while inspecting soil removed during the excavation.
That bone was later determined to be from an adult’s right hand. No other evidence of human remains was observed at the time, and additional remains have not been found at the site. In May, the city revealed that it anticipated finding the remains of as many as 650 individuals on its portion of the site.
The city has not yet filed a reburial plan with the state, and the remains uncovered last year are being stored in Wilson’s lab until arrangements are made and approved by the state.
The city anticipates releasing additional information about how it will proceed with developing the portion of its project that intersects with the cemeteries in the coming weeks, according to DPW spokesperson Kyle Bloyd.
Reach Mirror Indy reporter Emily Hopkins at 317-790-5268 or emily.hopkins@mirrorindy.org. Follow them on most social media @indyemapolis.