Transit agency builds a memorial at Evergreen Cemetery and will rebury remains that were
excavated during Gold Line Eastside Extension. The Chinese graves in Boyle Heights were
discovered five years ago, during construction of the Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension.
The Chinese burial ground later became the site of a crematory and at some point all the grave
markers were removed.
Until they were rediscovered in 2005, the exact location of the Chinese graves was lost to history. In all, the MTA discovered 174 burial sites as well as many artifacts -- including buttons, Chinese porcelain, glasses, rice bowls, jade, coins and opium pipes.
All the bones and artifacts will now be reinterred inside Evergreen Cemetery. The process, which will take several months, will start the first week in April, the MTA says.
The MTA spent $2 million on the project -- on excavation, archaeological research, DNA analysis, construction of the memorial wall and the purchase of burial plots and coffins, said Carl Ripaldi, principal environmental specialist with the MTA.
The MTA has promised to document the large collection of objects buried with the bodies and provide records to the Fowler Museum at UCLA. They have also had replicas made of some of the artifacts to give to the Chinese Historical Society and the Chinese Benevolent Association.
About 1,400 Chinese were believed to have been buried in the potter's field. But despite an outreach effort, the MTA was unable to identify any living relatives of the Chinese whose remains were uncovered during the digging for the Gold Line extension. (Source Ching-Ching Ni, Los Angeles Times, Mar 9, 2010).