You are facing east overlooking the Silver Terrace Cemeteries. The Silver Terrace was not the only Comstock complex, both Gold Hill and Silver City had their own cemeteries. The earliest cemeteries were established far away from the ore veins. As it turned out, they were too well removed and were abandoned due to the lengthy commute from town.
Typically the first cemeteries in Western American mining towns were haphazard, unplanned affairs. At the beginning of the Comstock in 1859, the dead were often buried in a convenient hole, sometimes created by exploratory mining. As more people came, there was a need for designated and plotted lands for burials. By 1867, the Silver Terrace collection of eleven cemeteries was established by various community, religious, and/or fraternal organizations.
The 30 acre grounds were fully irrigated and able to sustain a variety of non-indigenous plants. Historically, a stroll through the shaded, tree-lined cemetery pathways was meant to tap into all of the human senses in an almost transformative way. The Victorian people filled the landscape with symbols and material culture meant to convey a belief in everlasting life. These cemeteries were actually the forerunner of our American parks system.
The cemeteries of the Comstock are an exceptional and unique American West cultural landscape, and not the standard pioneer grid system graveyard often found in a transient mining town. What one sees here today is a powerful tool in our collective memory and a reflection of the population's sense of place-a link back to their homelands. The cemeteries are an expression of ideology and belief, as well as a socially infused presentation of material culture.
Silver Terrace cemeteries were once described as the loveliest burials grounds in the state of Nevada. Today they are victims of decay and abuse. Nearly eighty percent of the grave markers have been stolen or vandalized. In 2005, such theft became a felony in the state and this site is monitored remotely twenty-four hours a day, greatly improving our protection efforts.
The Comstock Cemetery Foundation relies on public support for cemetery preservation. There is no entrance fee, but donations are greatly appreciated. There is a donation tube outside the gates and additional information is available at the Comstock History Center
Comments 0 comments