Station bones are human
Remains are more than 50 years old
By LANCE HOLDFORTH, Special to the Examiner
The coroner has determined that bones found in the crawl space of the century-old Allandale train station are human.
Barrie police Det. Robert McLeod said the bones are more than 50 years, meaning it’s no longer a police investigation. The case now falls under the Cemetery Act.
“Once they’re over 50 years old, it’s treated as a cemetery and they are over 50 years old according to the expert,” McLeod said. “It looks like some kind of burial of some sort, which is the same as if you were digging up your swimming pool in the backyard and come across it.”
The City of Barrie will take over the investigation.
The Lakeshore Drive site’s restoration expert found the bones just under the sandy surface against the back wall while preparing the building for concrete pouring on Monday.
The person’s cause of death and gender haven’t been determined, but McLeod says the remains are in one area of the crawl space, which could mean there are more bones buried beneath.
“They’re pieces of bones, so the entire skeleton is possibly there, but we won’t know that until the archeologist goes in and starts doing their dusting and sifting,” he said. “They’re not scattered. They’re all within a small area, but it’s not like they uncovered a skeleton sitting there.”
The original station was built in 1853, but the remains were found in the basement of a 1905 addition.
Following several of years of vacancy, the station buildings are being refurbished. However, construction has been halted in the basement, which is now considered an archeological site.
“The City of Barrie will now have the archeologist come in and do their process they should be able to answer more questions at that time,” McLeod said.
Stan Mclean is no stranger to the railroad, having worked in the Allandale yard of the train station for more than 25 years.
“I started working there in ’51,” he said. “I can’t remember anything bad happening when I was there, but it was really busy. It was really going.”
Mclean said the train station was a hub for local travel at the time the bones are dated, but added he thought it was an aboriginal burial site.
“I just thought it was some old Indian bones, but I never thought much about until I heard they were human,” he said. “I thought they would be about 100 years old.”
The area where the bones were found will remain part of the investigation while restorations continue to the rest of the building, but Mclean says he remembers the building in its original form.
“That (building where bones were found) used to be an office building when I was around. I think it was a telegraph department when I started,” he said. “There’s a basement you can get in from a door on the outside on the north side of the building. I’ve only been in there once or twice.”
The Ministry of Consumer Services, which oversees cemeteries in the province, requested the city hire archeologists to proceed with the investigation to determine if the bones are native or non-native.
The city hired AMICK Consultants, which has offices in Port McNicoll and London, Ont.
McLeod said if signs of foul play do arise, a full investigation would be launched, but he thinks that’s unlikely.
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