The Secaucus Potter's Field Cemetery

Hudson County, New Jersey

Louis Berger's Cultural Resource Division was awarded a $5.795 million contract with the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA) to perform disinterment and reinterment activities at the Potter's Field Cemetery in Secaucus, Hudson County, New Jersey. Potter's Field Cemetery is located in Section 1 of the Secaucus Interchange Project, near the northwestern corner of the overall construction project. The $235 million interchange is expected to open in the Fall of 2005, and will allow travelers in and out of the Allied Junction development which will be built on top of the nearly completed new Secaucus Transfer station.

The Potter's Field Cemetery is one of three cemeteries documented in Secaucus near Laurel Hill, but it will be the only one impacted by the Secaucus Interchange Project. These three cemeteries were used to bury deceased indigents from Hudson County's former institutional complex at Snake Hill (now called Laurel Hill).

Excavations at the Potter's Field Cemetery

The portion of the Secaucus Potter's Field that will be impacted by the Secaucus Interchange Project includes about three acres. According to historic records, this parcel contains the remains of approximately 3,500 individuals in 1,200 grave shafts, buried between 1920 and 1962. Berger's team was engaged to seek grave shafts, disinter human remains, perform basic analyses on the human remains, and reinter the burials in the Maple Grove Park Cemetery located in the town of Hackensack, Bergen County, New Jersey. Berger's Secaucus Potter's Field excavations began in February, 2003, and quickly became one of the largest disinterment projects ever attempted.

• History of the Secaucus Potter's Field
• Finding the Graves
• Innovative Excavation Techniques
• Results of the Investigations

• A Question of Respect
• Artifacts
• Excavation Photos
• Coping with the Elements