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The public section of the only cemetery in Anchorage that offers free burial plots is almost full.
As a result, more and more families are opting for stacked casket funerals, where coffins are placed on top of each other. — and officials hoping for additional space donated by a religious organization are squeezing a few more graves into poorly mapped parts of the historic part of the property in the meantime.
The few remaining spots will likely be filled next summer.
Established in 1915, the Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery is an important part of Alaska’s history: Bush pilots, gold seekers and early entrepreneurs are buried there alongside notable politicians like Governor Wally Hickel and artists like Sydney Laurence.
The rows of gravestones, including two whale jaws that mark one plot, are located in a gated area of about nine square city blocks on the edge of downtown, between East Sixth and Ninth avenues.
(From Wally Hickel to Miss Wiggles, the storied history of Anchorage’s first cemetery)
It is estimated that the cemetery contains more than 15,000 graves. Nearly 2,000 places in the cemetery remain empty. But those are set aside for public reservations or private tracts held for families or members of specific groups and organizations such as the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the American Legion and Pioneers of Alaska.
Cemetery Director Rob Jones said the public part of the cemetery was filling up significantly faster than predicted.
With businesses and homes on all sides, there is no room to expand. There are no active plans to build a new municipal memorial park. Voters rejected a bond this year to establish cemeteries in Eagle River and Girdwood.
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As the public portion of the cemetery fills up, those seeking burial may have to move to Angelus Memorial Park in South Anchorage. The biggest difference between the two is the cost: Plots in the downtown cemetery are free because they are on public land, while plots in the private, non-profit cemetery can cost thousands of dollars.
According to the National Funeral Directors Association, the average cost of a funeral with burial in America last year was $8,300.
Squeeze the last few spaces
In addition to the private plots and other reserved areas, the cemetery still provides ample space for cremated remains to be buried or stored in the Columbarium Wall.
But the park reached capacity for public funerals in June.
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As the public plots became full, crews began using specialized equipment to look at that older portion of the cemetery and find areas with enough space for additional plots. The older tracts were dug without as much precision as is possible today and record keeping has improved greatly, Jones said.
“We’re pretty sure we know where people are, but the lines in the old part of the cemetery weren’t engineered, so they drift from east to west, they get narrow and wide for no apparent reason and that doesn’t happen . really lined up the way we would like to,” he said. “So when we enter that old part of the cemetery, it’s a bit of a mystery.”
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Crews identified 25 plots over the summer for families who wanted their loved ones buried in the cemetery but didn’t care where, Jones said. Of those 25 spots, 23 were usable. Another two dozen potential graves have been identified in the historic tract for digging next spring and summer.
He hopes a donation from the Catholic Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau will provide another 46 casket lots next year.
Still, he estimates that the space for public funerals will be completely full by June.
A more expensive option
At Angelus Memorial Park, a private cemetery in South Anchorage, land prices start at $1,700, said Ben Spink, who manages the cemetery. Angelus offers some discounts for funerals that qualify for financial assistance, but they are still more expensive than those at the city cemetery, he said.
Families in need of financial assistance can apply through the Department of Health and receive funds to cover the cost of a plot and any additional burial requirements at the least expensive local cemetery. The department’s costs could increase as the public portion of the cemetery fills with plots, but no policy changes would be necessary, said Alex Huseman, a spokeswoman for the department.
The Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau has also offered 46 of the sites in their tract for public use, Jones said. As long as the council approves it, enough spaces will become available for funerals to continue until June, he said.
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With so few spots remaining, Jones said, the cemetery likely won’t take reservations for the remaining plots, but families could choose to place two caskets in one spot. The cemetery digs graves deeper and can bury one person and later a second family member on top of the first casket, he said.
It’s easier to prepare for such burials in advance, but it is possible to dig up a casket and dig deeper to add an additional casket to the grave, Jones said.
The stacked burial option is one of many families who have chosen because the plots were filled, he said.
‘It’s already expensive’
This year, voters in Anchorage shot down a $4.1 million bond that would have funded public cemeteries in Eagle River and Girdwood. Those cemeteries could have served as a place for new ones state-sponsored funerals will take place, said Tommy O’Malley, who spent decades there advocating for a Girdwood cemetery.
Additional public cemeteries in the Anchorage area would save the state money, but also ensure burials are affordable to the general public, O’Malley said.
“Some people can’t afford $6,000 or $8,000 to bury their loved one,” he said. “It’s already expensive – the free plots made it more or less egalitarian.”
O’Malley said he was disappointed the bond failed, but he plans to continue pushing for a cemetery in Girdwood and hopes even a simple cemetery can open in the near future with limited funding.
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Cemeteries are an integral part of communities and their histories, he said.
“Everyone expresses their spirituality and mortality differently, but they all express it,” O’Malley said. “And it’s important, it’s a memory and it’s our past.”
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