Blessed Are The Dead

Title

Blessed Are The Dead

Artist

Mike Lee

Medium

Photograph - Digital

Description

On this morning I left a Reno Nevada hotel room at approximately 3:30 AM in hopes of shooting the 2021 Great Reno Balloon race. However, I was already pretty uncertain about the event given the flash of lighting that greeted me when I opened the drapes that morning. Therefore, it was no shock to me when the event management cancelled the event for the day. Since I was up and the skies were particularily moody from the thunder cells moving through I decided to take a spin up to Virginia City. I got to the cemetery just as it was opening for visitation in the morning and had the place to myself for some time. This image captures the gate to the furthest section from the parking area. I believe this area is known as Pioneer Cemetery, although I am not positive of that. The wonderful sky just rounds out the image wonderfully.

People have been buried on these grounds, known collectively as the Silver Terrace Cemeteries, since the Victorian era of the mid-nineteeth century and the small fences that can still be seen around many of the older graves are indicative of this. Some of these fences are ornate old iron as well and are beautiful to look at. There are also many decaying old wooden fence pieces around many of the grave sites, adding to the historic, if somewhat macabre, feel of place. From what I can gather, the different sections are organized to fit the various religions of the many Comstock miners who make up a significant number of the dead buried there.

As one might expect there are a number of legends about spirits haunting the place including one of a former groundskeeper of the facility who’s said to wander the grounds in deep sadness at the dilapidation of some of the graves.

Uploaded

September 11th, 2021

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