By Rich Dunn — The featured speaker at Monday’s Democratic luncheon will be Melinda Cash, board member of the Foundation for Carson City Parks and Recreation (FCCPR).
The Foundation is an independent, non-governmental organization dedicated to bringing members of the community together to encourage and enable public support for the continuing enhancement of Carson City’s parks and recreational facilities.
Melinda Cash will highlight the group’s many achievements, with special emphasis on the Headstones Memorial Project which she leads at Lone Mountain Cemetery.
Over time, most sections of the cemetery have been walked by volunteers, row by row, to document the more than 11,000 graves. In the process it came to light that hundreds of graves at Lone Mountain are undocumented. These graves have no headstone or marker.
Wherever possible the identity of the interred individual has been gleaned from a variety of sources, including cemetery records and obituaries. That information has then been verified in as many ways as possible.
Another problem Cash faces are graves that are extremely old. Because the cemetery has been around so long, there are graves that still have wooden headstones from pioneer times, and many of those names have been lost. There are no records for some plots without headstones, and unfortunately there may never be.
Complicating grave documentation further is that some graves were moved from other locations. In 1884, for example, 44 graves were reinterred with military honors from Ft. Churchill to the Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery at Lone Mountain.
Graves have also been relocated to Lone Mountain from the Ormsby County Poor Farm, the site of which is now Fuji Park and the Carson City Fairgrounds. The farm provided work and shelter for the area’s unhoused residents. It continued in operation for over a century, from the 1860s to the 1960’s.
Graves from another cemetery once located opposite the Governor’s Mansion were haphazardly relocated to Lone Mountain. As a result, numerous memorials wound up being identified as “unknown” or “location unknown.” Melinda believes that other historical cemeteries in Carson City could well be discovered in future.
The Foundation for Carson City Parks & Recreation raises funds through private donations to purchase the headstones and temp markers. Donation checks should be made payable to FCCPR and mailed to FCCPR, P. O. Box 3266, Carson City, NV 89702. Put “Headstones Project” on the memo line.
This luncheon is scheduled for 1:00 PM on Monday, April 7th, and can either be attended in person at Seven Grille, inside Carson City’s Max Casino, or online via Zoom. Melinda’s presentation will begin around 1:30 PM.
Those wishing to be on distribution for luncheon Zoom links and videos should contact Rich Dunn at richdunn@aol.com. This event is sponsored by the Carson City Democratic Central Committee and is open to the public.
