An aerial photograph of Kyuquot on a sunny day.
Photo Credit: Eric Plummer / Ha Shilth Sa

Are They, or Aren’t They? – The Mystery of Old Bones in Kyuquot

It looks like an archaeological site, not a crime scene

Sometimes when you’re cleaning up you find something you don’t expect

The decomposed body of a person was found on a remote beach near Kyuquot about 40 kilometres as the crow flies northwest of Zeballos.

Volunteers cleaning up the beach on Tuesday, July 20th, found the bones, which were still partly in the ground.

There is a chance the bones are very old.

The RCMP is not investigating because they think the bones are archaeological rather than a crime scene.

However, archaeologists from the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development will study the bones because they could be ancient.

Kyuquot can only be reached by boat or floatplane. There are no roads to get there. But people have lived in the area for thousands of years.

According to the Kyuquot First Nation, there is no known burial site in that area.

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