Nevada Insane Asylum Cemetery to Once Again Become a Cemetery

The following excerpt is from an article by Ed Pearce in the October 28, 2009 edition of kolotv.com.

Hidden away in a remote section of southwest Sparks there’s a small park. Generations of have used this surprising green space without realizing what lay beneath. I

n fact the park and a weed-filled, trash scattered lot next door is the last resting place for at least 600 souls, former patients of the state hospital, formerly the Nevada Insane Asylum, next door.

Bodies were interred here from 1882 to 1947, usually with no ceremony and little concern. What markers were left disappeared over the years and no one it seems bothered to even keep a map of who was buried and where.

The only surviving record of those lives is a leather bound ledger in the State Archives. A single line for each patient,name, age, birthplace, cause of death, the only proof of their sad existence.

Today there are new signs marking the cemetery, but until very recently the only the only hint of what is here is the uneven surface in the vacant lot. Next door in the park there wasn’t even that.

“These people deserve some respect,” says Carolyn Mirich, who counts a relative among those in an anonymous grave.

Mirich came to Nevada looking for a cousin’s grave and discovered a history of neglect. Rallying others to her cause, they formed an organization and pressed for a solution.

That solution was Senate Bill 256, passed by the 2009 legislature giving the cemetery protected historic status.

Read the full article.