Here you will find stories, maps, and photographs from a research initiative titled Nevada Lands: Nevadans’ Land. A deeply personal effort that connects me with previously unfamiliar grand and great-grandparents who arrived in this wondrous state at the turn of the 20th century and now rest in the Sacred Heart Section of the Goldfield Cemetery.

Three ambitions inspired this initiative:

First, an adopted challenge from acclaimed conservation writer Aldo Leopold, “There are two things that interest me: the relation of people to each other, and the relation of people to the land.” (Miene). It is a framework to explore how Nevada lurched forward in its territorial and early statehood days when livelihoods were built by hand, back, and horse; before the outsized influence of the automobile.

Second, walking the Basin observing “…the additions humans scatter about the landscape…typical of the history and geography of Nevada” (Starrs); exploration that is essential for understanding Nevadans’ relationship to the land and an exercise to energize one’s soul.

Third, is a spiritual journey. When traveling Nevada roads, we encounter archways leading to “villages of presence,” headstones inscribed for our viewing, offering a unique connection to time and place…an a calling for reflection.

This blessing echoes the sentiment I feel towards all who rest in the Goldfield Cemetery as with others scattered across the Basin.