Grave Digging the hard way

If you were in the excavating business in Sioux Falls during the 60's one of the ways to generate cash flow was to dig graves.

Our most common calls came from Hills of Rest, Woodlawn & Mt. Zion cemeteries. Hills of rest was the easiest. You did not have monuments to get in your way; but you did have the ultra-finicky caretaker, Mr. Powers! The place really looked nice; but he was nearly impossible to please--before and after the burials.

The process was to strip back the grass sod, dig out the dirt to the typical depth of 6-8 feet, depending upon the size of the burial vault that was used to contain the casket. If you could use a backhoe it worked very well. However, if you had to do it by hand in one of the older cemetery with lots of trees; the roots really made it tough going at times.

Backfilling and tamping after the graveside services were sometimes our responsibility and other times the cemetery personnel preferred to do it themselves. The real challenge was to get just the right mix of clay and black dirt that would tamp in well around the vault; so a minimal amount of settling occurred after the sod had been replaced.
If excessive settling occurred over the winter we had the opportunity to go back in the spring, strip off the sod, fill in more dirt and tamp it up again; so that when the sod was replaced the surface was even and smooth.

This whole process was much more challenging when we had to use air powered jackhammers to break out the frozen soil down to the frostline---typically 2-3 feet; but occasionally 5-6 feet.

More about that process on another winter adventure, really a grave that seemingly never ended in a future episode.

Grave Digging the hard way

If you were in the excavating business in Sioux Falls during the 60's one of the ways to generate cash flow was to dig graves.

Our most common calls came from Hills of Rest, Woodlawn & Mt. Zion cemeteries. Hills of rest was the easiest. You did not have monuments to get in your way; but you did have the ultra-finicky caretaker, Mr. Powers! The place really looked nice; but he was nearly impossible to please--before and after the burials.

The process was to strip back the grass sod, dig out the dirt to the typical depth of 6-8 feet, depending upon the size of the burial vault that was typically used to contain the casket. If you could use a backhoe it worked very well. However, if you had to do it by hand in one of the older cemetery with lots of trees; the roots really made it tough going at times.

Backfilling and tamping after the graveside services were sometimes our responsibility and other times the cemetery personnel preferred to do it themselves. The real challenge was to get just the right mix of clay and black dirt that would tamp in well around the vault; so a minimal amount of settling occurred after the sod had been replaced.
If excessive settling occurred over the winter we had the opportunity to go back in the spring, strip off the sod, fill in more dirt and tamp it up again; so that when the sod was replaced the surface was even and smooth.

This whole process was much more challenging when we had to use air powered jackhammers to break out the frozen soil down to the frostline---typically 2-3 feet; but occasionally 5-6 feet.

More about that process on another winter adventure, really a grave that seemingly never ended in a future episode.

Trip to Worthington rendering plant to clean the sewer

Now in the 60's and early 70's it was a virtual certainty that the sewer would get plugged over at the dead animal (cows & pigs primarily) rendering plant; when the temperatures were at least 100 degrees in the shade---often right on the 4th of July weekend; when you wanted to be sitting @ the lake, sipping some cool beers with the ladies of course.

When the call came in two, may be three of us family members @ Colwill Bros. Water & Sewer Const. in Sioux Falls would get picked to make the hour trip east into MN with the sewer rodding machine---device with a coiled rod that could be used as a traveling auger, run out through the sewer drain lines to cut out whatever caused them to plug during the hot weather, typically animal fats!

Usually the guys at the rendering plant got to take a break; while they waited for us to clear out their drain lines---often we'd find them eating their lunches while sitting right on top of the dead, bloated cows & hogs among an ample supply of flies. (probably did that for our benefit and it usually got the gagging sensations started)

The rendering plant drain lines actually ran out into a large lagoon that held the liquids drained from the plant during the processing of the dead animal bodies into what is commonly called "tankage"--really a very good source of protein that we fed to our feeder pigs to fatten them for market. (We hauled anywhere from a pickup load to a large semi-truck load of fattened hogs to the Sioux Falls stock yards almost every Sunday afternoon for about 34 years.)

The stench was unbelievable; and often we had to wade into that sewer lagoon to make sure the drain was working properly; plus the animal "byproducts" got all over you and every part of the rodding machine.

Needless to say your clothes were discarded when you returned home; and you got to sleep out on the screened porch for the week it took the odors to get worked out of your body! Pig manure could not even hold a candle to this stuff!

In addition the rodding machine was very heavy to tow, really poorly balanced with most of the weight in the rear; causing you to nearly lose control of it and the little 1/2 ton pickups we were typically towing it with originally---used up both lanes of the newly poured interstate and both parking shoulders more than once to get it slowed, under control if it started whipping back and forth. (rodder was clearly posessed and after a while only two of us would even tow it at all).

The old man could not figure out why a set of new tires would only last for a summer on that pickup; and we considered it a badge of honor to just be able to master transporting that baby!

Sioux Falls times

Just to show that I am not stuck on stories just relating to N. Minn. Ave. construction project, here's a couple that occurred off of N. Cliff Ave.---well in fact between N. Cliff Ave. and N. Minn. Ave, sort of.....

Folks that have been around the north end of Sioux Falls for a time will no doubt remember taking the steep short cut that started just east of the penitentary on N. Drive, ran down the hill going SE through sewer lagoons; and ending going straight east to intersect N. Cliff Ave. just north of the bridge over the Sioux River diversion channel that drops down on the north side of Morrell's.

The first section was notorously steep....thru traffic is now highly discouraged in fact....but it was a very quick way to get to/from N. Cliff Ave. if you had work to do over there. I remember rescuing at least one guy with a pickup towing too much weight on a trailer; and at least one dump truck that did not have enough power to make the hill.

They could not leave their vehicles; as they killed their engines part way up the hill and risked rolling backwards into the sewer lagoon if they did not keep their foot on the brakes.....just had 'em stay on the brakes; until I could hook up and slowly pull them on up the hill to North Drive with the old front end loader.

Now there was this tale that the city boys that worked the sewer lagoons used to tell........

Seems that one morning they come to work in the wee AM hours to discover that a brand new creme colored Lincoln had run into one of the most fragrant lagoons (they were about 10-15 feet deep when full) and was submerged nearly up to the roof with the driver's door left open.

They searched for the driver for a bit; and then called the police. Turns out the cops ran the plates; and went over to this married couple's house, rousting the husband from sleep.
He had just bought the Lincoln, which he considered his pride and joy; and had no idea that it was not in the garage as his wife always drove her own car to work in the early AM.

Well, to cut to the chase---it seems the wife discovered that hubby was chasing around with another woman, grabbed his new Lincoln while he was sleeping and ran it off into the sewage pond, returned home to get her car; and calmly went to work!

We all cried when we heard the tale; as Lincolns were considered quite the ride by many in the mid-60's---also tucked the story in the back of our minds just in case we ever even remotely thought about getting "wanderlust" sometime later in life!