Now that St. Joe County commissioners have closed the Portage Manor county home, attention is turning to preserving the burial place of people who lived and died there.
In an area on the home’s property, there are an estimated 1,200 unmarked graves, according to Portage Manor records. The county is deeding the cemetery to the Portage Township trustee for maintenance.
It will be a new responsibility that Portage Township Trustee Jason Critchlow says he’s happy to take on. Especially as some kind of new development is expected for the area.
"It's very important that that area be preserved and honored for the future," Critchlow said. "That's the commitment I can make to the community, is that it will always be there. I know there's a lot of concern out there on what would happen to this with the talk of development in that area. I'm hopeful that this will put those concerns to rest. This area will be protected."
Critchlow says he’s been talking with archaeology experts at area universities, and he’d like their input on how best to locate, mark and preserve the graves. Eventually he wants to erect a permanent fence but he can’t do that until he knows more about the exact boundaries of the property that the county will deed to the township.
"They have a good idea of where many of the bodies are and who's out there but you've got to understand, back then bodies were stacked, double, triple, one on top of each other in many of the areas."
Critchlow says preserving the cemetery will be an important priority for his office in the coming year.
