SILVER CITY, Idaho — Call it an odd discovery. A human skeleton was recently found in the old Odd Fellows Lodge in Silver City during a renovation project.
The old mining town sits about an hour and a half south of Nampa in Owyhee County.
Owyhee County Coroner Aaron Tines was called to Silver City on Friday, August 29, to investigate. He told Idaho News 6, "You always treat every case as suspicious."
Workers renovating the former lodge discovered a cabinet on the second floor that they say had been used by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. What they saw inside was something they never expected.
See what construction crews found during renovation in Silver City
"At the bottom of the cabinet was a homemade casket or coffin that held some articulated skeletal remains," Tines said, adding, "I'm sure it was a surprise to locate that."
The Owyhee Avalanche newspaper in Homedale shared some photographs with Idaho News 6 that were taken during the discovery.
I asked Tines if there was a reason why there might be bones up there. He replied. "So, with a lot of those fraternal organizations, they have some ceremonies. Some of those ceremonies do involve either prop skeletons or utilize real skeletons."
I spoke to the Grand Secretary of the Idaho Odd Fellows, and he told me they use the bones as part of their initiation and to teach future members about life.
They say their goal is to do good in their communities.
As far as who the bones belong to, officials don't know the ethnicity of the deceased or if the remains belong to a male or female.
Tines told me it could take weeks to find out. "I haven't had anything specific like this, so it is kind of new territory."
They will contact a local anthropologist and a DNA lab to see if it's even possible to ID the bones. We'll update you as soon as we find out.
