Vol. 12 Number 2 Feb 3, 1982

At the western end of Lake Wapta, a few miles east of Field, B.C., stand two crosses surrounded by a small chain fence. For many years these graves have been maintained by track personnel, often in their own time.

These are typical of numbers of such resting places along CP Rail lines across Canada. Most of them are shrouded in the mystery born of passing years.

The Wapta site, nestled in a grove of trees beside Cathedral Mountain, has the appearance of containing two graves but proof could only come by exhumation. It was quite common during the early days in old world countries to mark the site of a fatal accident with a cross.

On it would appear the name and age of the deceased often giving the name of the hometown. (As recently as ten years ago, such a cross was erected near Keremeos, B.C., beside the highway following a fatal automobile accident. It has since been removed.)

One of the Wapta crosses carries a partly decipherable inscription done with a penknife. It reads: "IGOR GROZENIA", then a damaged word, followed by, "KOWENA AUSTRIA 1912". It ends with two letters "BU". The other cross has no lettering. The National Geographic Atlas does not list a town by the name of Kowena.

The late Edward Feuz, the famous CPR Swiss Guide who lived in nearby Golden, B.C., distinctly recalls "a man was killed near the water tank at Hector when I was a young man in my early twenties". Since Edward was at the time of the interview in his late nineties the 1912 date isn't too far out of line.

Hector station stood some five hundred yards from the grave-site. Whether or not Grozenia was the victim of this accident is not known.

Until quite recently, there was a very simple marker at the west end of Redgrave yard, some miles east of Golden. It literally escaped the rising tide of progress when the Mica Dam site created a 90 mile lake requiring the railway to relocate trackage.

Dave Williams of Revelstoke recalls that the grave was vandalized some years ago and that he took the time to put it back in shape.

The inscription, faded over the years and defaced by the vandals, reads: "J. MclVER 1886". There was, Mr. Williams says, another grave, possibly two, behind a white picket fence at Beavermouth. Today Beavermouth is under 30 or 40 feet of water, as a result of the Mica Dam backup.

There is also a large and well known graveyard at Donald, B.C. near the Columbia River bridge. It serves as the resting place for a good many early rail pioneers and is reputed to contain a number of plots devoted to Chinese workers, many of whom died, it is said, from an outbreak of smallpox.

Throughout history, the finality of death has been the subject of grim humor of incorrigible pranksters. Some years ago, a cast cement gravestone suddenly appeared at the west portal of the Upper Spiral Tunnel. There was a bold inscription, topped by two bones (distinctly of the deer family) which read "ANDRO, the HOBO KING 1908-1962".

As quickly as it appeared it vanished again. The fact that an extra gang was spotted on the sidetrack at nearby Yoho and that they were engaged in pouring concrete footings had to be purely coincidental! It was Andy Montalbetti, roadmaster at that time, who pointed this out. He suggested it was a joke of some kind with "family implications" originating in their crew cars.

An interesting case, in connection with graves, appeared in the files of the superintendent's offices in Calgary a few years ago. Within the town limits of Chancellor, Alberta, beside CP Rail tracks, a final resting place was officially disturbed. Research revealed that the simple cross marked the remains of one Mytro Borys and that he died in 1913. A CPR laborer, he was crushed to death in a fall of rails from a flat car.

Since the town of Chancellor was expanding, the remains were exhumed officially and reburied. But for all those years, the little cross with his name on it was carefully maintained by several generations of laborers who followed in his steps.

Tony Silvene, of Victoria, B.C., was locomotive engineer for many years on the Esquimault & Nanaimo Railway, and like so many of his fellow travellers who have climbed the Malahat grade, passed through the summit tunnel and admired the magnificent view. Following his death, a last wish was fulfilled when his ashes were scattered along the tracks at the viewpoint. Bert McNeil, retired chief clerk with the E&N, was a witness to the ceremony. Later, he said, a siding was named in honor of "Engineman Silvene".

One wonders how many graves and markers there are along Canadian Pacific lines, and how many of those who died in the early days rest in forgotten rail side places.