Exshaw Cemetery Many of you may not know that there is an old cemetery located just west of the hamlet of Exshaw. There were approximately 70 people buried in the cemetery but few graves are still marked. The cemetery was in use from 1906 to 1925, after which time it was replaced by the cemetery in Canmore (except for children burials in 1929 and 1935). A large number of the occupants were children and adults who died during flu pandemics.
The MD of Bighorn’s Heritage Resource Committee has been pursuing information on the Exshaw Cemetery over the last year in order to secure the cemetery’s history before it is lost. We have combed old Improvement District files, Exshaw school projects information from the late 1970’s, brought in microfiches of old Rocky Mountains Park of Canada records, as well as used information found in the book “Exshaw Heart of the Valley” by Alexander and Cooper (2005). For the list of information we have been able to complie click here.
D. Colpo 1918 - died of Spanish flu |
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Major restorations of the cemetery were undertaken by Lafarge Canada Inc. in 1984 and 2003. The cemetery has been surrounded by a chain link fence and a plaque was posted listing some of the names of those buried there. The site is largely overgrown now with many aspen and pine trees as well as thick grass and bushes, and the MD plans to work with Lafarge and Alberta Public Lands to determine a long term maintenance program. The cemetery sits on Crown land in an unused area of the Lafarge quarry. Access is restricted, due to quarry safety concerns, but visits can be arranged for relatives or other people with a special link to the cemetery by contacting Lafarge Canada Inc.. |
In the summer of 2011, Lafarge staff guided MD of Bighorn staff through the cemetery to GPS (i.e., locate using the global positioning system) locations of the existing grave markers and to take photographs. The points were then plotted on a map.
A copy of a 1922 plan of the cemetery from the Rocky Mountain Park of Canada was obtained but it is difficult to correlate the graves shown on the old map with the possible grave sites recorded by the GPS. |
| We are putting out one last call for information before consolidating the information we have in a properly preserved file. If you have any information about the Exshaw cemetery that you would like to contribute, please contact Ulrika Gillespie at the MD office. |
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Damaged headstone of
Frederick Sammy Goodman |
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