A grave discovery at Audubon State Park will alter the landscape of its golf course, according to Amherst Town Supervisor Brian Kulpa.

“We have the remnants of the south campus pauper cemetery at Audubon at the golf course area,” he said.

Town officials were unaware of the mass burial site until last year. The section where the remains were transferred from the pauper cemetery and re-buried was once owned by the University at Buffalo South Campus in the 1960s. Remains exist near the 14^th and 18^th holes and near the creek.

"The question of how far they span, how much there is, those are largely unknowns,” added Kulpa.

What is known for the town is that the next steps will be to properly honor the remains that date back as far as the 16^th century.

"Not with the 19^th century cemetery trappings of vault trucks and vaults and hearses,” said Joseph Dispenza.

The town has commissioned the help of Forest Lawn, which came up with the concept of a cremation-only cemetery called the Amherst Memory Gardens. It will be the only one of its kind in Western New York.

“The beauty of nature, which transcends every faith, is the divinity of nature as both a park and a burial ground,” said Dispenza.

There is no clear deadline on when the Memorial Garden will be complete.

However, Kulpa said the golf course at Audobon Park that sits on the remains will be shut down following this upcoming season.

"Audubon, at some point in the near future, will cease operations as a golf course,” Kulpa said. “We should not be golfing on top of bodies."