Along Lake Superior, erosion threatens the dead and the living’s memories : NPR

Low lying cemeteries near shorelines face threats of erosion as water levels rise. That is especially true for two cemeteries near Lake Superior, the largest of the country’s Great Lakes.

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Cemeteries are supposed to be a final resting place for the dead, but in coastal areas they can be threatened by erosion, and that’s particularly true along the Great Lakes. And for two cemeteries near Lake Superior, it has become a dire situation. Sam Fuqua reports from one such cemetery in Duluth, Minnesota.

(SOUNDBITE OF WAVES CRASHING)

SAM FUQUA, BYLINE: Scandia Cemetery sits on a bluff about 30 feet above Lake Superior. At least 1,500 people are buried there. Many of them Scandinavian immigrants who came to Duluth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It’s a beautiful spot.

PATRICK BOYLE: A very peaceful place but on a very tough piece of land to be buried for 150 years on.

FUQUA: That’s Patrick Boyle. He’s a county commissioner, and this cemetery is in his district.

BOYLE: You have northeastern winds that can kick up at any time on Lake Superior and kick up 20-foot waves on a clay bank.

FUQUA: He says the impact of coastal erosion was literally exposed two years ago.

BOYLE: A young couple with a couple young kids came across a skull and some bones on shore. So that’s when it really hit home that the time is now to work on this issue.

(SOUNDBITE OF WAVES CRASHING)

FUQUA: There are thousands of cemeteries in the U.S., many on private land. No federal agency keeps track of them all, and there are no reliable estimates of how many are impacted by coastal erosion. However, a county study at Scandia Cemetery found that 50 to a hundred graves nearest the lake are at risk. Research shows that Lake Superior is heating up faster than the other Great Lakes. Mike Braunagel, an assistant professor of geology at the University of Minnesota Duluth, says that impacts erosion.

MIKE BRAUNAGEL: We’re seeing a lot more alternations between freezing and thawing, which is wreaking havoc on our cliffs and breaking them down even faster.

FUQUA: The problem is the same at a Native American burial ground 400 miles east of Duluth, along Superior’s south shore. Kayla Perron Assinewe is the new tribal historian for the Bay Mills band of Ojibwe.

KAYLA PERRON ASSINEWE: It’s just slowly eating away at the back of that hill. Each year, we lose a little bit more.

FUQUA: The burial ground is centuries old. It includes the remains of many a Ojibwe killed during a battle with the Iroquois in 1662. Retired tribal historian Paula Carrick says awareness of the erosion problem goes back at least 20 years.

PAULA CARRICK: We did have people who were walking the beach who found things in the water right there that would typically be buried with someone. And, of course, we’ve had to deal with looters back there because they know that it’s washing in.

FUQUA: Traditional Ojibwe practices include burying the dead with tools and other items they might need on their journey in the spirit world. Solutions to the problem boil down to two options. Dr. Jennifer Rochon Blanks is an environmental planner and a cemetery preservation consultant. She says one is relocation.

JENNIFER ROCHON BLANKS: Nobody really wants to do that ’cause, at this point, the plot of land is historically significant, right?

FUQUA: The graves won’t be moved from the cemetery in Duluth or the Bay Mills Ojibwe burial ground. Both sites want to use the more common option of shoring up the coast with soil, sand and rocks, as well as constructing wave barrier walls offshore. The projects run into millions of dollars, and neither has the funds yet. Rachon Blanks encourages anyone aware of an at-risk cemetery to notify appropriate agencies, and she says dedicated funds would also help.

ROCHON BLANKS: Agencies that are responsible for land development, that are responsible for flood control, reporting it with them does increase the visibility of the issue. And then from there, really creating a reserve of money, like, some type of financial resource to address these issues.

FUQUA: The tribe is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on possible federal funding. The Duluth cemetery is on a list of projects that may be considered by the Minnesota state legislature next year. If funded, the erosion control projects will help keep these sacred sites from washing away.

For NPR News, I’m Sam Fuqua in Duluth, Minnesota.

(SOUNDBITE OF DANIEL CAESAR SONG, “DO YOU LIKE ME?”)

Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.