Kilgore Trout

Beautiful pictures FlyorDie, especially "Handle with Care". May they rest in peace, whoever they are. Thank you for sharing what you've seen.

TonyC

What at first blush looks somewhat like a loving gesture is more likely a case of cemetery trash. My curiosity led me to Google KELCOR. They make mortuary products, or more specifically, shipping containers and cremation supplies, to "funeral professionals."

The item pictured looks like the "Kraft Hood" to one of their shipping containers, and probably should have been destroyed rather than allowed to blow around the place in the wind. Certainly, (one would hope) the body it once contained was treated with more care.






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AZFlyer

Yep, that's a human remains box. Notice the 'head' indication near the top.

Kilgore Trout

I sure hope Tony C. is right about it most likely being empty.

FlyOrDie

double post

FlyOrDie

The deceased was a 45 year old female, who had been arrested in July for violating the terms of her release and being intoxicated in public. Alcoholism takes a heavy toll on rural Alaskan life. I was shocked that her shipping casket was just abandoned like that, which is why I took a picture of it.

My in laws lived in Nome for several years and said that during the winter the bodies would be stored until spring for burial. Prior to Nome they lived in Savoonga, where the bodies were left above ground and the arctic foxes cleaned the remains up, of course that was back in 1970 so things were different. One day I read a opinion piece from a Native leader talking about how life has changed for Native Alaskans. He was born and raised in Barrow and said this about life there, "Before the white man came we lived below ground and buried our dead above ground, now we live above ground and have been cold ever since."