Indian Cemetery/Peo Hill Cemetery
City of Muskegon
Peo Hill near Port Sherman
(Muskegon Channel)
Peo Hill has a history older than the Peo Mansion. Years and years ago, when Michigan was being carved from the wilderness, it was the site of an Indian burial ground and there many a brave chief crumbled into dust and was carried away by the winter wind. On that summit slumbered many a gentle missionary with his silver cross on his breast.
The old Indian cemetery was for many years a mine of wealth to relic hunters and many bodies were exhumed. The Indians understood something of preserving the bodies of the dead and many of these were in excellent condition when taken up. Many silver crosses stamped with the “R.C.” were found, but it was difficult to tell whether the crumbling remains were those of a missionary or an Indian chief who had embraced the white man’s god.
No longer than 12 years ago, the remains of a squaw were dug up near the old boarding house. In the grave was a brass kettle with a chunk of meat in it supposed to supply the squaw with food on her journey to the red man’s happy hunting ground. It is said this meat was so well preserved that a Port Sherman dog seized it from the kettle and carried it away for a gruesome feast.
Many bodies were found enswathed in four inches or more of birch bark, much as the “Egyptians wound their mummies in fine linen, and very well preserved. Not an Indian was allowed to sleep in peace. In fact, to put it in the words of a Port Sherman man, “They’ve dug up so many remains out of that old cemetery, I doubt if there is a single remain left.”
(Muskegon Daily Chronicle, November 10, 1899 – Research by Evelyn Buckingham)