Back in the distant years before 1980, Portland area cemeteries didn't have to keep standardized records of who was buried where exactly on their property. That has let to an epic—and creepy—land sales screwup, Metro told reporters today, in which 640 local graves were sold twice.
Metro took over 14 local cemeteries in 1996, including several historic "pioneer cemeteries" whose records from the 1800s are spotty, having gone through floods, fires, and in some cases were originally written on individual reeds. Most of the twice-sold graves were purchased before 1880 and have been resold over the past century, unbeknownst to the current owners or Metro itself.
Metro took over 14 local cemeteries in 1996, including several historic "pioneer cemeteries" whose records from the 1800s are spotty, having gone through floods, fires, and in some cases were originally written on individual reeds. Most of the twice-sold graves were purchased before 1880 and have been resold over the past century, unbeknownst to the current owners or Metro itself.
The regional government discovered the problem in 2007, when a man who bought a gravesite when down to visit it and found—whoops—it was already occupied. Metro hired an auditing agency to look through their records and when the agency found 640 twice-sold gravesites, Metro shut down grave sales at Lone Fir Cemetery, the oldest pioneer cemetery in Portland and the location home to most of the errors.
Photos of the records and more on unmarked graves in Lone Fir below the cut.