Melissa Lavigne has kayaked on the St. John River many times. She likes it.

She found two old graves on the riverbank, which was very surprising.

The graves were for two different men who died many years apart.

Lavigne said, 'It's very weird. I hope the river isn't trying to tell me something.' She was surprised.

A kayaker in Fredericton found two old graves.

The first grave was visible because the water was low in the summer.

Some of the writing on the stone was worn away, but it said 'WARD BYRON'.

It also said 'BORN 7th APRIL'.

And 'DIED 24th NOVEMBER 04'.

The stone was about 100 meters from the Westmorland Street Bridge.

The headstone looked like other stones along the riverbank.

Lavigne said, 'It looked like just another rock on the side of the river.'

But the writing on the stone told a story.

A man with the same name and dates was buried a few kilometers away.

Records said Edward Byron Winslow was born on April 7, 1842, and died on November 24, 1904.

Winslow was a lawyer and a citizen of Fredericton, and he died after a long illness.

He was related to someone who came to America on the Mayflower in 1620.

Despite the headstone in the river, Winslow is buried in the Forest Hill Cemetery.

Josh Green, who helped find Winslow's details, doesn't know how the headstone got in the river.

Green thinks the stone might have been thrown away because of a mistake.

There was a stonecutter in the area around 1900, which might have made the stone.

Kathryn Murphy, a manager at Wolastoq Adventures, had never heard of this before.

She said, 'That's awesome, a really neat discovery.'

Murphy will tell her customers to look for the headstone now.

Lavigne found another grave marker in the river on the same trip.

The marker said 'Walter F. Blair 1892-1971'.

Blair was born at the Victoria Public Hospital, which is near the river.

Blair was a major in the military and an accountant.

Blair served in both world wars, and there is a photo of him in his uniform.

Blair is buried in the Fredericton Rural Cemetery, near where Lavigne found the marker.

Lavigne and her husband returned the marker to Blair's family.

Stuart Blair was happy to get the marker, and he will give it to a relative who keeps track of family history.

Lavigne hopes her next kayak trip will be less eventful.

She said, 'Well, that's a lot of death in this river.'