Unusual Find on Port Elgin Beach Stuns Collector

For over 37 years, Jackie Mc Allister has been gathering beach glass and has stumbled upon some fascinating items along New Brunswick’s shores.Jackie Mc Allister says the tombstones on the beach in Port Elgin are her strangest find in 37 years of beachcombing. (Submitted by Jackie Mc Allister) But what she discovered this weekend in Port Elgin takes the cake as her spookiest find yet.

Following a tip from a family member, the Riverview resident made her way to a secluded beach in Westmorland County. After walking down the path to the shore, she was taken aback by dozens of tombstones piled up on the sand.

Although some were broken, Mc Allister mentioned that most seemed to be intact.

The names engraved on them were clearly visible.

“They were piled on top of each other, they weren’t pushed into the bank,” she said.

“It was very scary. I’ve never come across anything like this.” 

‘They were dumped’

She estimated that there were more than 50 stones of varying ages – with one dating back to 2009. The stones were near an abandoned mobile home.

“One was a veteran’s,” she said. “I don’t understand how they could be sold and re-purposed without at least chiseling off the names.”

Initially, Mc Allister thought these monuments had washed ashore from the ocean – but quickly realized they were too heavy for that.

“A truck could drive all the way down there,” she said. “My thought was that they were dumped.”

The tombstones hadn’t been broken up or had their names removed, which is ‘very unusual,’ according to Richard Bartlett. Bartlett has been in the granite memorial business for over two decades. (Catherine Dumas / CBC)

Mc Allister stated she called RCMP in Sackville to report her discovery.

The police informed her that they’d received other calls regarding the unsettling sight along the seawall.

She learned from them that these stones were misprints and couldn’t be used as intended; instead, they had been sold off for building a wall on the beach.

Sackville RCMP and Village of Port Elgin did not return calls seeking more information.

“They said they have had calls before,” Mc Allister shared about her conversation with RCMP. “It would be good to have the names chiselled off or facing down, just not thrown there like they are.” 

‘Very, very uncommon’

Richard Bartlett, whose family has worked in granite memorials for over 25 years, expressed he’s never seen entire tombstones being sold off like this.

“Sometimes we’ll have a monument that’s no longer needed: another monument company will spell names wrong and it needs grinding down or an update requires a new monument,” he explained.

In those situations, he noted it’s common practice to store such stones or grind them down for reuse. Some companies even bury them to prevent inappropriate reuse.

This scenario is “very, very uncommon,” Bartlett remarked.

RCMP told Mc Allister the stones were misprints and weren’t actually used for marking graves. (Catherine Dumas / CBC)

“A monument with someone’s name on it belongs to someone and their family somewhere,” Bartlett added. “To see that permanent marker just lying around anywhere isn’t something we would do ourselves.”

He suggested it’s unlikely any monument company would sell misprinted stones expecting buyers would remove names themselves.

“You wouldn’t think a granite company would hand over monuments expecting someone else to grind off names,” he stated. “The tools we use for that are specialized and costly.”

Even if these monuments are misprints, Mc Allister finds it “sad” seeing them stacked up on the beach.

“Imagine spotting someone you knew’s name?” she wondered.

“It’s a real mystery.”

Source link