PIONEERS TO BE REINTERRED; PUBLIC SERVICE SET FOR BONES FOUND IN JANUARY.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

This afternoon, the unidentified remains of a baby and four men - unearthed by crews building the 4,300-home NorthLake residential tract in Castaic - will be interred at Eternal Valley Memorial Park.

The 2 p.m. burial service, open to the public, will be held in the Garden of the Pioneers section of the cemetery, 23287 N. Sierra Highway. The bones were uncovered in January by Genstar, the Castaic-based developer of the 1,600-acre NorthLake project east of Interstate 5 near Lake Hughes Road.

When crews began clearing a hilltop parcel of land, developers were alerted to be on the lookout for old graves. ``They were informed by local residents that there might be a graveyard at the top of the hill,'' according to a company statement.

``We investigated and uncovered one grave,'' said NorthLake general manager Matthew Breiner. ``We exercised extreme caution, protected the site and then called the Coroner's Office. The county coroner determined there were multiple graves at the site.''

An archeological firm hired by NorthLake ``exhumed the graves and conducted research to attempt to determine whose remains occupied the grave sites,'' Breiner added.

Forensic archeologists determined that William Willoby Jenkins settled the land a century ago. The baby's remains could be those of a child of Jenkins and either his first or second wife, while the men's could be those of ranch hands who worked for the family, NorthLake officials said.

``Descendants of the Jenkins family remained on the property until the 1960s, when the land was sold to The Newhall Land and Farming Company. There are no records of any living Jenkins descendants,'' Breiner said.

Records show that William Jenkins died in Los Angeles on Oct. 19, 1919, and that his body was cremated and interred in Los Angeles - not in the family cemetery in Castaic. Forensic archeologists also believe that Jenkins' widow and two daughters were not buried on the Castaic ranch land.

In a few months, the cemetery will place a granite marker next to the plots.

``It will be one headstone for all five. We don't want them to be more unknown than they were,'' said John Clee, general manager of Eternal Valley.

``It will say where the graves were discovered and when,'' Clee added. The marker also will make note of when the remains were reburied, and an estimate of when the people might have died.

``They're going to be buried in coffins that are in the style of what they were buried in back then,'' Clee said, describing a casket that is wide at the shoulders and narrow at the feet.

The baby will be buried in a white coffin, and the adults in dark wooden ones. The plots and the caskets were donated by Eternal Valley.

``We wanted to do a public service, and thought it would be appropriate to have them buried here along with all the other pioneers,'' Clee said.

Garden of the Pioneers, the oldest section of Eternal Valley, is also the only area on the 25-acre grounds with upright headstones, Clee added. Elsewhere, the markers are embedded level with the grass.

Among the Santa Clarita Valley residents buried in Garden of the Pioneers are members of the Lyons family and J.H. Whitney, he said.

``Because there weren't any records back then, we weren't able to determine who the people were,'' Breiner said. ``At this point, we probably will never know who they were were.''

Forensic archeologists believe the baby was at most 6 months old, and might have died in the 1850s or 1860s. Breiner said the infant, whose gender couldn't be determined, was interred in a decorative coffin with a glass faceplate.

All of the remains were buried about 6 feet underground, with the baby's grave at one end. ``They were all in one location . . . laid out in a nice row,'' Breiner added.

A priest from St. Clare Catholic Church in Canyon Country will conduct the graveside service.