VIRGINIA
CITY, NEVADA—
Virginia City's historic cemeteries are often referred
to as "Boot Hill," but the term does not apply.
Boot Hill was a generic term for the graveyards where
gamblers, prostitutes and murderers were buried. Virginia
City's cemeteries, of which there were once as many
as fifteen, are not the resting places of the rich and
famous, either. A visit quickly reveals the truth, that
ordinary people rest here, the shopkeepers, bartenders,
miners and their families.
One of many Irish names on headstones
in the Catholic Cemetery
A marble headstone in the Odd Fellows
Cemetery
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A mining family: note the tools in
the upper left corner of the marker, and the gold
pan in the lower right
Simple wooden markers stand beside
those of marble and granite, preserved by the arid
climate
A well-preserved wooden marker dating
from 1884 in the Exempt Firemen Cemetery
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