Family and friends gather at the graveside of Jim Belote, on Dec. 11 2024. Belote’s burial was the first winter burial in the area in decades. The burial took place in the green burial section of the Chassell cemetery. Access was limited because of the winter weather. (Jennifer Donovan/For the Gazette)

CHASSELL ­– Last December 11, Jim Belote gave his final gift — himself — to the trees he’d always loved. He was buried without embalming, in a painted cardboard casket in the green burial section of Chassell Cemetery.

It was the first winter burial in the Keweenaw in a very long time. Since embalming came into fashion, those unfortunate enough to die in winter here were embalmed and their bodies stored until spring. But increasing numbers of people now are seeking natural burial, without embalming, no steel casket or concrete vault. They want their bodies to return to nature, to nourish the trees, the wildflowers and grasses, and without embalming, that needs to happen within 48 hours of their death.

That’s what Jim Belote and his wife, Linda, wanted. “We wanted it long before we knew it was even possible here,” says Linda.

The Ecuadorian Way

The Belotes met decades ago while serving in the Peace Corps in Ecuador. They witnessed a number of Ecuadorian burials, done traditionally, with no embalming, no vaults, brightly painted, biodegradable caskets and rose petals tossed into the grave. That’s what they agreed they wanted for themselves.

Then, at a public forum at the Keweenaw Unitarian Universalist Fellowship where she is a member, Linda heard about green burial options in this area. She learned from the speaker, funeral director Mark Dennis, that green burial is not only legal in Michigan, but is available in the wooded Chassell Cemetery. She discovered the active Keweenaw Green Burial Alliance (KGBA) that educates about and promotes natural burial here.

“I said, Woo hoo. Paradise,” she recalls. “Jim loved nature. I love nature. We wanted to be part of nature, to be fertilizer for plants.”

The Belotes already owned cemetery plots in Hancock, where they lived at the time. They talked to the Hancock Cemetery Board about opening a green burial section there but got nowhere. So they bought new plots in Chassell.

“Despite already having plots in another cemetery, green burial was less expensive for the Belotes,” says KGBA president Stephen Jukuri. “They did not have to pay for a vault or winter storage, thus more than covering the cost of new plots in Chassell and the extra winter burial fees.”

They Saw it Coming

Jim had been sick a long time, six years, Linda estimates. He was in hospice at the end. “The hospice workers were wonderful,” she says. The night he died, they called Mark Dennis, who transported him to Chassell two days later for a brief, graveside service. Dennis, who runs O’Neill-Dennis Funeral Home, provided a cardboard box painted with peaceful forest scenes, which he stocks in preparation for people who want a natural burial. He used his own four-wheel-drive vehicle, since his hearse could not get to the grave on the narrow, snow-packed roads of the cemetery.

Dennis’s son, Jeff, who runs the Pearce Funeral Home in Lake Linden, helped with the Belote burial. Both funeral directors believe in green burial. They always offer it as an option and mention it in their advertising and obituaries, Mark Dennis says.

The day was frigid, and the service was brief. Because the roads were snowed in, Chassell limited attendees to one carload of guests. That disappointed Linda and their daughter, Karen, both of whom knew Jim had a lot of friends who wanted to be there. But they understood the township’s concerns. They plan a celebration of his life at the Keweenaw Unitarian Universalist Fellowship building on Bridge Street on May 31. “I know it will be packed,” says Linda.

The graveside ceremony in Chassell was a lot like the Ecuadoran ones that Jim and Linda remembered. There was singing, and everyone threw multi-colored rose petals into the grave. There was even laughter, when Karen threw a snowball into the grave and shouted, “Here, Dad. Catch!”

Funeral Director Mark Dennis calls the Chassell Cemetery the most cooperative cemetery in the area. “They actually embrace green burial,” he says. The other cemeteries say maybe they will permit a green burial, maybe they won’t, or they will, but maybe not in winter.”

KGBA’s Jukuri also praises the Chassell Cemetery, calling it a model for green burial. “Some say that the private sector does everything better than the public sector, but Chassell Township proves that is not universal,” he says. “What matters most is a ‘can do’ attitude and a desire to meet people’s needs.” KGBA worked closely with Chassell to develop its green burial section and guidelines for operating it.

Dennis recalls early 20th century funeral directors’ descriptions of the winter burials that were common then. They used horse-drawn hearses and sleighs to take people to the cemetery and strong, hardy men to dig the graves by hand.

“It’s been multiple generations now since the Copper Country has seen a winter burial,” says Jukuri. “This is the kind of progress that the Keweenaw Green Burial Alliance been working toward for a decade.”

And it enabled Jim Belote to end up right where he wanted to be, doing just what he wanted to do–nourishing the natural world he loved so much.