A Guide to Dyea, Alaska

Alaska & Yukon Genealogy Resources

    What follows is a complete photo-inventory of all 52 markers in the two cemeteries at Dyea, Alaska. I took these photographs in January 2001. It includes captions with all the visible text on each headboard or monument, and other related information, in some cases as links to other sites.

    The most famous cemetery is the Slide Cemetery, where the people killed in the April 3, 1898 "Palm Sunday Avalanche" are buried. Nobody knows exactly how many people were killed or who is buried here - there are huge discrepancies in the accounts of the day, both in numbers and names. Although the generally accepted figure has been in the 65-73 range, Karl Gurcke of the National Park Service at Skagway, who has done extensive research on the avalanche and its victims, feels that the number may be closer to 100.

    The other, much smaller cemetery is a bit closer to the road, and contains bodies that were moved when the original Dyea cemetery was being washed away by the Taiya River in the 1970s. The graves there are for Bert Meeker, Gus Taylor, F.L. Fetter, children John J. Mason and Alice Mason, Mrs. Sophia Matthews and James Leo Workman. There is also a small granite monument honouring some of the native people who died in the area - it is listed here under "Johns".

    There are six headboards in the Slide Cemetery which are illegible. One is thought to be for C. Beck, whose headboard was still intact in 1979. The others are unknown.

Victims of the Palm Sunday Avalanche - this complete listing from four major publications shows clearly the difficulty in establishing who was killed.

The view from the Stone House in 1898 - the approximate location of the Palm Sunday Avalanche is at the lowest part of the valley. The photograph is by Winter & Pond, from Alaska by Miner Bruce, published by 1898 by G.P. Putnam's Son.

Peter (?) Andersen Died April 12, 1898

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O.W. Anderson Died April 3, 1898

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S. Atkins Died April 3, 1898

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E.D. Atwood Died April 3, 1898

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W. Carl Died April 3, 1898

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William Carroll Died April 3, 1898

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Walter Chapper Died April 3, 1898

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J.P. Clark Died April 3, 1898

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Thomas Culleden Died April 3, 1898

Ed Doran Died April 3, 1898

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J.E. Doran Died April 3, 1898

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James Edward Doran Died April 3, 1898

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A. Englund Died April 3, 1898

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F.L. Fetter Died March 22, 1898

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V. Fetter Died April 4, 1898

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Con Gephard Died April 3, 1898

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T. Glinn Died April 3, 1898

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Allen Gray Died April 3, 1898

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S. Grimes Died April 3, 1898

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W. Grimes Died April 3, 1898

E.P. Haines Died April 3, 1898

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C. P. Harrison Died April 3, 1898

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E.T. Hutton Died April 3, 1898

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Tagish Johns Dyea Johns Died: ?

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G. Leon Died April 3, 1898

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Daniel McLinnan Died May 28, 1898

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John J. Mason Died June 16, 1899 Alice Mason Died November 16, 1898

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Mrs. Sophia Matthews Died: ?

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Mrs. A.U. Maxon Died April 3, 1898

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Bert Meeker Died March 3, 1898 Meeker died in a fire that destroyed the Douglass Bunk House and Saloon in Dyea - see that story here.

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John A. Morgan Died April 3, 1898

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J.C. Murphy Died April 3, 1898

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George L. Osborn Died April 26, 1898

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Wilbert Garfield Packard Died: ?

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J. Pierce Died April 3, 1898

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W.L. Riley Died April 3, 1898

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George Riser Died April 3, 1898

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Jeff Saley Died April 3, 1898

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G.F. Smith Died April 3, 1898

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Frank Sprague Died April 3, 1898

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S. Stevenson Died April 3, 1898

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Gus Taylor Died March 3, 1898 Taylor died in a fire that destroyed the Douglass Bunk House and Saloon in Dyea - see that story here.

George Uhlin Died April 3, 1898

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L. Weideleiu Died April 3, 1898

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James Leo Workman Died October 29, 1900

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Noscitur (likely a misspelling of "nescitur," Latin for "(it) is not known.") Died May, 1898

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Unknown

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Unknown

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Unknown

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Unknown

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Unknown

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Unknown

Buried but Lost: Information on people reported to have been buried at Dyea but now lost.

John John McCafferty
From Montgomery County, Missouri
Died during the week prior to March 12, 1898, of "Tuberculos fever".
Death and burial at Dyea reported in 2 sentences in The Dyea Trail of March 12, 1898.

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Peter Peterson
Died April 16, 1898
Death and burial at Dyea reported in a newspaper article.

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Thomas E. See
From Montgomery County, Missouri
Died during the week prior to March 12, 1898, of "Tuberculos fever".
Death and burial at Dyea reported in 2 sentences in The Dyea Trail of March 12, 1898.