Human remains found near Basalt

Human remains were found last week in the Emma region just outside of Basalt. 

Basalt’s Timberline Excavation unearthed what appeared to be a skull and humerus (upper arm bone) while excavating for work regarding a Holy Cross electrical line on a private residence on Monday.

 “It’s a first for me,” Timberline Excavation owner Lucas said of uncovering remains during excavation.

Timberline found the remains about three feet under the earth’s “finished grade” — or desired grade of the land after excavators have prepared it for landscaping — at roughly 3 p.m. on Monday. The company was 30 feet into digging a 4-foot deep, 3-foot wide, 250-foot long trench for the electrical line when the discovery occurred.

Lucas, who chose to omit his last name since the situation is still under investigation, said the company has never uncovered human remains before, although they “come across a lot of stuff in the ground, buried.”

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He declined to give specific information about the site excavation, though he said the company is no longer excavating in the area while the investigation continues. 

A spokeswoman for the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office, the agency who took the original dispatch call, said it ruled the situation noncriminal and directed all further press inquiries to the Eagle County Coroner’s Office. Lucas said the Sheriff’s Office did not say how old the bones were, why they might have been there, or who they were from.

Eagle County Coroner Kara Bettis declined to comment at this time.

“It’s all under investigation,” she wrote in an email. 

Jenna Weatherred, Holy Cross Energy vice president of Member and Community Relations, said the energy company was not involved in the excavation, as the property owner hired Timberline for the dig.