Best Local History Groups Documenting Mining-Town Graves in the Mountain West
headstone cleaning in Nevada | headstone cleaning in Las Vegas Nevada
I still remember the first time I found my great-great-grandmother’s headstone, it was up a dusty canyon outside Ely, Nevada, in a cemetary that looked more like a junkyard of sagebrush and rusted fence wire. I spent three hours on my hands and knees with a soft brush and water, trying to read her name. Mary Ellen Connelly. Died 1887. The stone was sandstone, flaking like a stale biscuit. I nearly cried when I finally made out the date. That moment hooked me. I wanted to know who she was, who else was buried there, and why nobody seemed to care.
Turns out, alot of people care. They just don’t have a big budget or a fancy website. The real work gets done by scrappy local history groups, retired miners, librarians, and grandkids like me. If you’re trying to track down a mining-town cemetery in Nevada—or anywhere in the Mountain West—you don’t need a genealogy subscription. You need to find the right people. The ones who still remember whose grandfather lies under that unmarked pile of rocks.
So here’s my no-nonsense list of the best local history groups doing the hard work of documenting and preserving mining-town graves. I’ve personally contacted most of these groups, visited a few, and learned a ton the hard way—like the time I tried to clean a marble stone with dish soap. Big mistake. More on that later.
White Pine Historical Foundation – Ely, Nevada
This is where my own search started. The White Pine Historical Foundation runs the Nevada Northern Railway Museum and keeps a binder—a real three-ring binder—of cemetery records for the entire county. Not digitized. Not indexed. Just handwritten notes and typed lists from the 1950s. The volunteers there are retired railroad guys and schoolteachers. They know every grave in the Ely City Cemetery, plus a dozen abandoned plots up nearby canyons. I called them on a Wednesday afternoon and got a woman named Betty who recited Mary Ellen’s burial plot number from memory. Unbelievable. They also hold an annual cemetery cleanup day in late spring. I drove up from Reno and spent a Saturday pulling cheatgrass. Best thing I ever did.
Tonopah Historic Mining Park – Tonopah, Nevada
Tonopah’s cemetery sits on a barren hill overlooking the old mines. It’s windy, it’s dusty, and the stones are mostly iron crosses that have rusted into lace. The Tonopah Historic Mining Park maintains a database of burials that goes back to 1900. Their big project right now is photographing every marker and uploading them to a private Facebook group—because, as the director told me, 'The county website hasn’t been updated since 2008.' They also have a map of unmarked graves based on old funeral home ledgers. I used that map to find my great-uncle’s plot. It was just a depression in the dirt. No marker at all. But now I know where he lies. That matters.
Goldfield Historical Society – Goldfield, Nevada
Goldfield’s cemetery is a mess. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it. The historical society there is three people and a dog. But they’ve digitized every obituary from the Goldfield News from 1905 to 1920. That’s gold. Literally. They cross-referenced names with the county death records and created a searchable PDF that they’ll email you for free. I asked for a list of Irish-born miners and got 47 names in two hours. The downside? The cemetery itself is fenced with barbed wire and the gate is locked. You have to call the society president to get the combination. I did that. He asked me to bring him a six-pack of Coors. I did that too. Worth it.
Nevada State Historic Preservation Office – Online Database
Okay, not a local group per se, but they host the Nevada Cemetery Database, which aggregates records from all the small societies. It’s clunky. The search function only works if you spell the name exactly right. But it’s the only place you’ll find records for ghost-town cemeteries like Belmont, Hamilton, and Cherry Creek. I found three Connellys in Cherry Creek that weren’t in any local binder. The site also links to PDFs of old WPA surveys from the 1930s. Those surveys include hand-drawn maps and notes like 'grave of unknown Chinese miner, east of the big cottonwood.' You can’t get that from Ancestry.com.
The Mining History Association – Regional Network
This is a national group, but their Mountain West chapter has a cemetery subcommittee that does field surveys. Every summer they pick a different county and document every grave in a specific mining district. Last year it was the Comstock Lode area. This year it’s the Eureka district. Their reports are published in a free PDF on the MHA website. They also clean stones—properly, with D/2 Biological Solution and soft bristle brushes. I learned my lesson about cleaning from watching their videos. Never use anything harsh. A pH-neutral cleaner is all you need. Their methods saved my great-grandmother’s marble stone from my own ignorance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: I live in Las Vegas. How do I find a local history group for a mining town cemetery in northern Nevada without driving 8 hours?
A: Start with the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office’s cemetery database online. Call the county clerk’s office in the town you’re interested in—they usually have a number for the local historical society. Most of these groups are happy to email scanned records. I’ve gotten PDFs from the White Pine Historical Foundation within an hour of asking. You don’t have to visit in person to get information.
Q: Are there any groups that specifically focus on Chinese immigrant graves in Nevada mining towns?
A: Yes. The Nevada State Historic Preservation Office’s WPA surveys often note Chinese graves. The Goldfield Historical Society has a seperate list of Chinese burials from the county coroner’s records. Also, the University of Nevada, Reno’s anthropology department has a project called 'Forgotten Voices of the Comstock' that maps Chinese graves in Virginia City. It’s not a formal group, but they share data freely.
Q: What’s the best way to clean a sandstone headstone in a remote Nevada cemetery?
A: Don’t use anything harsh—no acids, no bleach, no wire brushes. Sandstone is soft and crumbles easily. Use a pH-neutral, non-ionic cleaner like D/2 Biological Solution. Spray it on, let it sit for 10 minutes, then gently scrub with a soft nylon brush. Rinse with low-pressure water—a spray bottle or a bucket and sponge works. I ruined one stone by scrubbing too hard. Go slow.
Q: Can I volunteer with a mining town cemetery history group if I’m not a historian?
A: Absolutely. Most groups are desperate for volunteers to photograph stones, transcribe old records, or just pull weeds. The Tonopah Historic Mining Park lets anyone join their spring cleanup. No experiance needed. I showed up in jeans and work gloves and they put me to work mapping unmarked graves with a GPS app on my phone. It was easy and rewarding.
Q: How do I find grave locations for a mining town that’s now a ghost town with no active group?
A: Check the Nevada Cemetery Database first. If it’s not listed, search for old county atlases on the University of Nevada, Reno’s digital collections site. The Library of Congress also has Sanborn fire insurance maps that sometimes show cemeteries. Failing that, post on the ‘Nevada Ghost Towns’ Facebook group—I’ve seen members share GPS coordinates for hard-to-find plots.