Erosion Exposes Bones on New York City Island of Dead

Erosion on Hart Island, N.Y., has unearthed countless bones from New York City’s burial island of the poor and destitute. Forensic anthropologists from the city have collected 174 human bones that have emerged from the rocky shoreline during recent storms, including six skulls, six jawbones, 31 leg bones and 16 pelvises. This number does not include bones that have washed away or still need to be collected and cataloged.

Since 1868, the city has used Hart Island as a burial ground for the city’s poor, nameless and unclaimed dead, ultimately, burying an estimated number of 1 million with approximately 1,000 people still buried every year. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy eroded one of the island’s embankments and exposed a Civil War-era cistern, according to Fox News. Since then, the site has been earmarked for a $13.2 million federal erosion repair project with the eventual goal of transforming the island into a park and historic site. 

The erosion repair project was scheduled to begin in 2020, but recent winter storms have escalated the situations, exposing numerous remains, and raising the need to accelerate the project by a year, as reported by CBS New York. 

“We are doing everything we can to limit future exposures and expedite the firming up of the shoreline,” said Jason Kersten, a spokesman for the Department of Correction which manages the island.

Until further erosion control and repair measures begin, the Department of Correction is sending archaeologists monthly to the island to remove, catalogue and bury exposed remains.