WINNIPEG – It’s the final resting place for more than 200,000 people and more than 11,000 veterans.
Brookside is the largest cemetery in Western Canada.
Each and every headstone and burial spot tells the story of a Manitoban laid to rest.
With graves more than 125 years old, finding some of the older ones can be difficult.
“We have what we call number cones, and our number cones are buried in the grave in certain locations,” said cemetery administrator Jane Saxby. “So they’ll come along, they’ll find that number cone by lifting the soil on a regular basis and they’ll pace things out.”
Just recently, groundsmen were able to find the locations of 50 bodies that are in the registers from 1901-02. They had been searching for five years to find them.
It’s a common cemetery problem from back in the early days, when things were designed as the groundsmen developed sections. They would only produce hand sketches or they would change a map design without actually changing the map to reflect the new locations.
Brookside has a rare Thomas White Bronze monument, which is not very common outside of Ontario. It has a secret removable panel and rumours say that’s where the groundsman would have kept an alcohol stash or where robbers hid their loot, if they were being chased.
The 31 victims of our nation’s largest train crash are all buried at Brookside.
A large communal grave holds the remains of those killed in Dugald, Man., in a 1947 disaster.
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Brookside’s Field of Honour is one of the largest and oldest military interment sites in Canada.
It’s considered Canada’s most significantly designed Military Field of Honour, with more than 11,000 veterans interred alongside each other, with each grave marked by an upright monument.
The Field of Honour was opened in 1915 and is home to the only Commonwealth War Graves Stone of Remembrance in Canada.
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Manitoba has frigid winters and graves used to be dug by hand, making it difficult to do so during the colder months.
The original burial chapel served as a natural morgue in the winter months, until holes could be dug in the spring and the bodies buried.
Today different techniques and equipment enable burials all year round.
Though a cemetery may not be your first choice of wedding locations, it has been for a few couples. Others have also chosen it as a site for wedding photos.
It’s also popular among film crews.
Brookside was used to film an advertisement about texting while driving for Manitoba Public Insurance and movies such as The Bride of Chucky.
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