Film about Aurora’s historic pet cemetery reveals ‘woodland wonderland’

Making its world premiere this week, an award-winning documentary about an Aurora pet cemetery takes residents behind the scenes of the work being done to restore the historic site.

Happy Woodland Pet Cemetery: Discovering the History documents a years-long process to restore and examine the historic site, which Jeremy Hood, who appears in the film, says is unparalleled.

“People always see a pet cemetery, and it starts with Stephen King and creepy, and the actual place is an amazing, serene woodland wonderland,” said Jeremy Hood, collections technician at the Aurora museum. “It is truly a beautiful and incomparable place, there is nothing else like it. There are other pet cemeteries, but nothing like Happy Woodland.”

Hood was part of the team trying to find all the tombstones in the cemetery, using archival footage and ground-penetrating radar to determine the site’s original boundary.

Over the years of surveying, the number of animals discovered has grown from about 300 when Hood first joined the project to 809 named pets now, across 752 headstones.

“There’s always hope, that one day we’ll find another name,” he said. “But I personally feel like we’re at the point where we’ve found almost everything there is to find underground. We’ve drilled so thoroughly underground over many years, all over the place.”

Now Hood said the plan is to start interpreting the data they’ve collected. From there, the team will look to restore some of the markers to their original locations that may have changed over the years. But the process is long and complicated, Hood said.

Happy Woodland Pet Cemetery was originally opened by Victor Blochin and Anne Wilson, who bought the property on Yonge Street in the late 1920s.

Michelle Johnson, collections and exhibits coordinator, said an Oct. 7 film screening at Town Square showed how eager residents are to learn more about the historic cemetery, which Johnson and Hood said appears to be the first in Canada.

“There are so many people past and present who have worked hard at this place and are passionate about this place,” he said. “Being in front of the camera talking about the project is exciting, because it’s the first step to being able to share it with the general public.”

He added that he said the documentary was the first in a series of films to come as work continues on the pet cemetery for its eventual opening to the public. The city purchased a 16-acre parcel in 2023 containing the pet cemetery, with the intention of incorporating it into a larger park at some point in the future.

“It’s a very exciting time to be involved in maintaining and presenting the city’s history,” Johnson said.

“We’ve been kind of holed up in temporary offices during the construction of City Square, and now that we’re home in this building, it’s really nice to be able to engage with the public,” he said.

Hood said that while the work continued, the hope would be to have the site designated as a National Historic Site, like the Hillary House.