THUNDER BAY — The story behind a gravestone found buried in the backyard of a residence in Westfort has now been revealed for the most part, although not completely.
A Union Gas crew rerouting a gas line to a home on Christina Street unearthed the headstone on Tuesday, much to the surprise of current resident Kelly Teras.
Teras, who bought the house two years ago, says he was contacted at work by the company, "saying they had to stop progress on rerouting the gas line because they came across a grave site...probably one of the last things I expected to hear from a phone call."
He was told the headstone was "fully intact" and "fully engraved" with the names of two people, and a couple of pieces of wood were found nearby. However, "they didn't find anything like a body or anything like that."
Teras said Union Gas immediately implemented protocol and contacted Thunder Bay Police.
Police said Wednesday afternoon that they had checked the ground around the discovery but found nothing else of significance.
But the pastor of Our Saviour's Lutheran Church had already done his own research, and was able to provide more information.
The names on the headstone were those of Edward Vilhelm Christiansen and Ragnhild Solem, who died in 1939 and 1950 respectively.
After learning about the discovery, Rev. Matthew Diegel looked up their names in church records, communicated with Riverside Cemetery and got in touch with Edward's son, Ron Christiansen of Thunder Bay.
Diegel said Edward, born in 1905, drowned in Jesse Lake while working, most likely on a hydro project at Cameron Falls. His body was found the following spring, and he was buried at Riverside one month after his son was born.
"Ron never knew his father," he said.
Ragnhild Solem, Edward's mother-in-law and Ron's grandmother, died at the age of 76 and was also interred at Riverside.
What remains unknown is how a tombstone with both their names engraved on it found its way to someone's backyard.
"We've pieced together some stuff with the help of Riverside Cemetery," Diegel said. "The two are actually buried separately in separate sections. The mother-in-law is buried in a double grave. She is the only one buried there, and there was never a tombstone."
He speculates that when she died, her family planned to have Edward's remains transferred to the same plot, but for some reason it never happened.
Ron Christiansen, he said, told him that the family moved to the United States after his grandmother died.
"They were away for awhile, so it might have just got lost. We really don't know what happened after that."
Thunder Bay Police said they have spoken to the family and will retain the headstone for safekeeping until the family takes possession.
