Topeka ? A cemetery caretaker claims workers building a new trail in north Topeka have unknowingly trampled over unmarked graves at a plot for relatives of former U.S. Vice President Charles Curtis.

Ann Andrews, caretaker for the Curtis Family Cemetery since 1994, said workers constructing the new Soldier Trail drove their equipment onto an unfenced portion of the cemetery that contained unmarked graves.

She said workers also damaged a fence surrounding marked graves in the process.

City officials said the damage will be repaired and care will be taken to avoid the graves.

The cemetery has graves for relatives of Curtis, who was vice president under Herbert Hoover. Curtis, a Topeka native who also served 20 years in the U.S. Senate, including time as majority leader, is buried at a different cemetery in Topeka.

City spokesman Dave Bevens said the city engineer did not know there were unmarked graves in the area when construction crews started working in the area.

Andrews said there are 20 to 50 graves at the cemetery and only about 12 are marked.

The city’s records show the trail itself isn’t on the cemetery property, Bevens said.

Dave Herrman, of Herrman’s Excavating Inc., the subcontractor on the project, said he didn’t think workers had been aware of any unmarked graves before the work started.

Herrman said crews would be sensitive to Andrews’ concerns as the project progressed.