Description of Historic Place

The Steelhead Cemetery consists of a small plot of land in Steelhead Provincial Park near Savona, British Columbia. The cemetery is located on the bluff overlooking the park and Kamloops Lake. The historic place consists of the cemetery containing one memorial and the remains of an earlier decorative wood fence nearby.

Heritage Value

The Steelhead Cemetery has spiritual, historical, aesthetic and recreational values.

The Steelhead Cemetery is important for its relationship with the spiritual values held by the early pioneers in the area. Of unknown denomination, the cemetery is located high on a bluff overlooking the former Francois Saveneux property and Kamloops Lake. It is a testament to the early settlers of the area, their adventurous lives and hard work.

The cemetery has historical value through the presence of the burials of two well-known Savona residents: ferryman Francois Saveneux and brewer and Mason Giovanni Velatti.

Aesthetic value is found in views of the cemetery with its white picket fence; the remains of an earlier, more decorative fence lie on the ground nearby.

The cemetery has educational and interpretive value through its preservation within both of the earlier privately-owned and provincial campsites, and through proposed plans for an extensive interpretive program on the site. It also has recreational value for its support to the overall visitor experience at Steelhead Provincial Park.

Source: Ministry of Environment, BC Parks

Character-Defining Elements

Key character-defining elements of Steelhead Cemetery include:

Site:
-location of the cemetery on the high bluff overlooking Steelhead Provincial Park
-single tombstone of Giovanni Velatti with Masonic emblem
-unmarked grave of Francois Saveneux
-grassland vegetation
-fence surrounding cemetery site
-nearby remains of earlier fence