Two burials took place on Nov. 1, 1957 at the Pioneer Cemetery in downtown Whitehorse.

While a large state burial was held in one part of the cemetery for Yukon icon Martha Black, a small group of mourners gathered in another section to bury an infant.

"I can't tell you where Jeff is, but I'd like you to find him for me,” Scott Howell, the infant's younger brother, told city council Tuesday evening.

Scott was born after Jeff and another brother, Mickey, passed away.

On Tuesday, he asked the city to honour the lives of his brothers and the many others who were buried at Pioneer Cemetery and who now have no grave markers.

He argued the city needs to hold off on transferring title of three Steele Street lots to the Yukon government, which is planning to redevelop the Sarah Steele Building, until more work is done to acknowledge the lost graves in the area.

A recent radar survey identified 12 "sites of interest” in the Steele Street lots that could be grave sites.

The territory will be doing test excavations in an effort to find out what exactly is below the surface.

As Howell told council last evening, using Google Earth imaging to explain his points, there are a number of depressions in the ground around the cemetery that could be grave sites.

He noted that a number of years ago, the city tore down the wooden grave markers that were in the cemetery. He believes there could be upwards of 170 grave sites that aren't marked.

As it states on the city's website:

"Although the City of Whitehorse was established as a municipality in 1950, the city did not accept responsibility for managing the cemetery until 1965.

"Unfortunately, no consecutive records of burials were kept, apart from individual churches and the Masonic Lodge.

"About 20 years ago, most of the wooden markers were removed in a misguided cleanup of the area.

"As a result, there is no complete record of individual grave sites, apart from those with stone monuments.

"There seemed to be a need for a compilation of as many as possible of the names of those at rest in the cemetery, and a book titled Lost Graves was compiled.”

Howell said he doesn't expect the city to go in and do extensive excavation work to identify each and every grave in the area.

However, he would like to see a stone wall or plaque – some sort of permanent memorial – to preserve the memory of those buried there.

Howell has also been in touch with the Yukon Order of Pioneers, which is pursuing plans to improve the cemetery.

He stressed he wants to see the city not go ahead with third reading on the land transfer right now.

Council is set to vote on third reading next week.

In an interview following Tuesday's meeting, Mayor Dan Curtis said he doesn't favour holding off on the land transfer.

He said he trusts the Yukon government will do the necessary work with great care to identify any potential grave sites on the land.

He also said he doesn't see erecting a stone wall to recognize the lost grave sites, noting it would be subject to city bylaws which limit fence height.