Hospital & Farm Burial Site Dedication
After years of research and documentation, The Big Pine Cemetery District presented the “Inyo County Hospital and Farm Burial Site” to the public.
Around the year 1900, Inyo County provided a hospital and working farm on 80 acres near Big Pine. The purpose of the farm was to help people who had fallen on hard times be self-sufficient and provide medical care.
By 1920-1940, it was also used as a sanatorium-tuberculosis center. The building was eventually converted into the Big Pine Care Center, which was used until 2000.
The majority of the residences were poor miners from back East and other countries with no family here to pay for a burial or purchase headstones. A burial was provided by Inyo County and the farm staff. Unfortunately, the original burial markers for these people have been lost over the years. About 10 years ago, according to the cemetery district, cemetery manager Bud Jasper asked the people of Big Pine to help rake and clean-up Crocker and Woodman’s Cemetery.
Jasper, the district notes, “referred to us as the ‘Future Residents Association.’” He loved talking about the history of Big Pine and the cemetery. He was told that the north area of the cemetery was once used by the Inyo County Hospital/Farm as a pauper’s cemetery to bury the residents who passed away in the early 1900s.
Jasper wanted to find more information on these residents, however, most of the old burial records from that time were destroyed in a fire and digitized information was not on the internet yet.
Fast forward to 2018, the current cemetery manager, Melinda Decoster, presented to the cemetery board a project that would acknowledge and mark these former residents. The board agreed and wanted to find a way to tell the stories of these people who once belonged to Inyo County.
With the help of the Eastern California Museum, California Digital Newspaper Collection, California State Achieves, California Death Index, California voter registers and the Inyo County recorder’s office, hundreds of hours were spent to gather and post this data on the Big Pine Cemetery Find-A-Grave website.
Currently there are 103 people documented who passed away between 1877 to 1928 at the County Hospital/Farm cemetery.
It is with extreme pleasure that the Big Pine Cemetery District has purchased permanent markers and a story board explaining the intriguing history of the Farm and burial site. This information is available to the public and future family genealogists.
The Big Pine Cemetery District held a dedication of the Inyo County Hospital and Farm Burial Site on Saturday, Nov. 5. During the ceremony new grave markers were unveiled along with a story board explaining the intriguing history of the farm and burial site. Pictured here, Big Pine Cemetery Board of Trustees, from left, June Shaw, Pat Calloway, Robert Vance, Rosemarie Todd and Melinda DeCoster.