NOTICE OF REDEDICATION:
In 2005, Bob Berrington (deceased) of Reno, NV. contributed photographs of the
Northern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services Cemetery. Those pictures showed a
cemetery lacking any upkeep and carried with it a terrible history of the
treatment of the patients and subsequent deaths and burials in the Asylum's
cemetery, located in Spark, Nevada. You can see Bob's pictures and view names
of the deceased by going to the Tombstone Page,
http://usgwtombstones.org/nevada/nevada.html. Select Washoe County then scroll
down to the Northern Nevada Adult Mental Health cemetery section. Carolyn
Mirich of Montana saw those pictures and wanted to know where her Aunt was
buried. Sadly, no record existed. Carolyn spearheaded a drive to turn around the
despicable conditions of the cemetery and right all the wrongs that occurred to
the inmates of that Asylum. In 2009, the Nevada Legislature passed a bill
designating the cemetery as an historical landmark. Since then, many efforts
have gone into bringing the cemetery up to standards to respect the deceased.
Much research by many volunteers went into to determining who were or may have
been buried in the cemetery. (At last count, over 600 persons are known to have
been buried in this cemetery. A child's playground that had been built over part
of the cemetery by the City of Sparks has now been removed, and technology has
been used to locate final burial places for the deceased.
On January 11, 2011, the cemetery will be rededicated. The ceremony will take
place at the cemetery on 21st Street, between North and Hymer Avenues, in
Sparks, Nevada. The ceremony will take place between 2pm and 4 pm. Refreshments
will be served immediately following the ceremony at the Agriculture Building.
The public is invited.
For further information, you can also visit the website of the Friends of
Northern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services Cemetery
Gerry Perry, Manager
Nevada Tombstone Project