plundered by visitors and allowed to fall into a state of disrepair for nearly a century.  The goal of the Foundation is to stop the stealing, stop picking up of souvenirs for a rock garden at home and start contributing to the protection of our historic resources.  

How would you feel if this was your grandfather’s grave? Vandals dug a hole in an attempt to retrieve a skull or perhaps an old sword.  How would you feel if it was your grandfather’s skull, his sword?   

Consider the following facts:

One object per day is stolen during the summer months from these historic sites.

Over 70% of those people seeking relatives’ gravesites are unable to locate them due to the theft or erosion of the grave marker.  

Approximately 5,000 people were buried on the Comstock but due to theft and decay we can only locate and record 1,987 sites.  

Contributions to the protection of these sites amounted to less than $7000 last year, yet these cemeteries are the second most popular attraction on the Comstock.

Cemeteries of the Victorian era, such as the Gold Hill and Silver Terrace, were viewed as gardens.  They were places for contemplation and for the enjoyment of gardens and nature.  The landscape was filled with trees, flowering plants, roses, morning glories and dense fields of purple clover.  Not even a shadow of these historic gardens remains today, only the dead carcasses of old trees and overgrown sagebrush.  The early community wanted the cemetery to be a beautiful oasis in the desert landscape and a dignified place to bury their loved ones.  These 19th century cemeteries, complete with watering systems, were the prelude to America’s national parks. They are disappearing from sight and from memory.

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