Silent no longer.

For decades, no one knew that Route 37, which traverses Warwick and Cranston, covered a dark secret. It was only after early summer rains and erosion caused skeletal remains to tumble into the fringe of a parking lot off Sockanossett Cross Road in Cranston in 2006, that it was discovered that the highway had built over a forgotten cemetery that was the last resting place for people who died at the old state farm for the poor, infirm and unwanted.

The discovery led to a major archaeological excavation project funded by the state, and the necessary unearthing of the graves of about 60 people in order to allow an improved drainage system to be built along that stretch of Route 37. The project was conducted with care and dignity and the bodies were eventually reinterred with proper ceremony at a nearby historical graveyard off Pontiac Avenue.

It is estimated that about 3,000 bodies remain beneath the highway, but historians and preservationists are determined to make sure they are not forgotten again and that their stories be told.

On Monday night, the Cranston Historical Cemeteries Commission hosted a panel discussion entitled “Forlorn Last Resting Place: The Poorhouse Graves of Route 37.” Held at the main branch of the Cranston Public Library, the event was attended by about 60 people and featured presentations by the Cranston Historical Society and The Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. (PAL) – the Pawtucket-based firm that conducted the recovery of the remains.

“What happened to these people was egregious,” said John Hill, Chairman of the Cranston Historical Cemeteries Commission. “And if there is any story that illustrates the need for cemetery awareness, it is the story of what happened to the graves under Route 37.” He noted that the event coincides with “Rhode Island Historical Cemeteries Awareness and Preservation Weeks.”

Monday night’s speakers told the stories of the grim lives of the people who lived and died at the state farm in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Archaeologists from PAL also gave a detailed account of the excavation and relocation project.

“This is why we work to get people to remember and respect our historic cemeteries,” Hill said. “The roads we drive are the paths they walked, and our neighborhoods are the fields they worked.

“The fact that their graves weren’t marked has nothing to do with them, and everything to do with us,” he said. “We build monuments to presidents and name high schools after governors, and there’s nothing we really do to remember the everyday people who did the sweating and the working back then. They were forgotten -- and we want to fix that.”