Haunted Cemeteries in Nevada

Nevada joined the United States as the 37th state in 1867. The name Nevada comes for the Spanish word nevada meaning snow capped. In 2014 the population was 2.84 million. There are only 400 documented cemeteries in Nevada which covers 110,567 square miles. That means there is only one cemetery in every 276 square miles.

'Grave Cemetery is near the Pioneer Pass Road near Beowawe in Eureka County. There are around 120 graves graves here. The cemetery was named after Lucinda Parker Duncan who died in 1863. The 70-year-old grandmother was travelling with her family from Richmond, Missouri to Galena, Nevada. She became ill and died along the way. Her original grave was moved to its present location due to a realignment of the Southern Pacific Railway in 1906. She was born in 1792 in Falquier County, Virginia.

Lucinda’s ghost is sometimes seen standing at her own grave as she is the only member of her family buried here. Her husband, Daniel, and their three oldest sons had gone west well before the rest of the family and he died in the California gold fields in 1849. The three sons lived a long life and all died in California.

Silver Terrace Cemeteries is known by many names because it is actually eleven cemeteries in one. They are Masons, Pacific Coast Pioneers, Order of Oddfellows, Silver Terrace, Knights of Pythias, Catholic, West End, Exempt Firemen, Wilson & Brown, Ancient Order of Redmen and Storey County Public. They were established as one cemetery in 1867. There are roughly 1,300 interments dating back to the 1820s. It is located in the Cedar Ravine Area of Virginia City in Storey County.

There are a few paranormal events reported here. Sometimes there are tombstones that give off a strange light, seeming to glow in the darkness. The tombstones also seem to move from one place to another and then back again. Another oddity is the gates have a tendency to swing closed by themselves or opening on their own, even if they had been latched.

The ghost of Julia Bulette is often seen at her grave with a child at her feet even though she was not known to have had any children. She was the most famous prostitute in Virginia City, but she was beaten and strangled to death in 1867 by John Millian, a French drifter. She is buried in a

Tonopah Cemetery is on North Main Street beside the Clown Motel, which is also reported to be haunted, in Tonopah in Nye County. There are close to 500 interments dating to the early 1890s.

Many of the pioneers of Tonopah are buried here. In the winter of 1901-1902 over 30 men died in what was called the Tonopah Plague. The actual disease was never discovered. Many people left the town after that. There were also 14 victims of the Tonopah-Belmont Mine fire in 1911. Today the population of Tonopah is around 2,000.

This cemetery appears to be haunted by everyone who was ever buried there. And it seems when they get bored they go next door to the Clown Motel.

There was a burial here in 1996, but it was the first since 1922.

Goldfield Pioneer Cemetery is near the Veterans Memorial Highway near Goldfield in Esmeralda County. There are 152 interments here. The original cemetery was home to 70 of the earliest pioneers of Goldfield. Eventually people complained about a cemetery right in the heart of town so, under the cover of darkness, men called “official ghouls” dug up the bodies and moved them to their present location just outside of town. There were 82 more burials at the new location.

Many apparitions are seen wandering about in this graveyard, including the unknown man who died from eating paste. Things were tough in Goldfield and apparently the man stole a jar of library paste and decided eating that was better than eating nothing. What he didn’t realize was that the paste was made from clove oil and alum and in large enough quantities the combination is fatal. Or maybe he did know and this was just a bizarre way to commit suicide.

Bullfrog-Rhyolite Cemetery is located near Ryolite and Pioneer Roads. Ryolite is a ghost town in Nye County about 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas near the eastern edge of Death Valley. There are 145 interments here dating to the early 1900s. Ryolite was a boom town but didn’t last long. It hit its peak between 1900 and 1910.

This cemetery is very spooky, but does not have any known ghosts. One things that almost all visitors agree on is that the silence is deafening.

Goodsprings Cemetery is on Goodsprings Road (Highway 161) in Clark County. There are 147 interments going back to infant Ray Brewster in 1899. Goodsprings itself is a ghost town and there are supposedly 30 inhabitants here who never left. They are probably buried in the cemetery, but their identities are unknown. There are still people living here, but in 2010 there were only 229 still here and over half of them were over age 50.