Tuesday

Goodsprings Cemetery

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(Fig. 01)
Description and History: The Goodsprings Cemetery (Fig. 02) and is an old, continuing cemetery, consisting of 1.33 acres, that is located southwest of Las Vegas, Nevada seven miles from Jean, just before entering the town of Goodsprings.  Surrounded by a fence, a large white iron gate acts as the entrance (Fig. 01). A sign on the gate is labeled, Goodsprings Cemetery (Circa 1890). Being that the earliest marked burial, for that of a Anna Nimmer, dates to December 27, 1890, it would be safe to assume that the cemetery was in use long before A.J. Robbins donated the property to the town in 1913. In fact, because there are so many ‘unmarked’ graves, it was probably even earlier than that.
                      
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(Fig. 02)
                                    
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(Fig. 03)
Many of the ‘well known’ persons who actively promoted the settlement and responsible for placing Goodsprings ‘on the map’ are buried here. Probably most noteworthy is the entrepreneurial businessman George Fayle, a former Clark County Commission chairman. He built the Fayle Department Store, the Pioneer Saloon in 1913 and the Fayle Goodsprings Hotel in 1916. Though all his ventures, other than the Pioneer Saloon, eventually failed as the town began to decline, Fayle would not be around to suffer the humiliation. He succumbed to the Flu epidemic that swept the United States and western Europe in the early 19th century, and on December 9, 1918, was buried in the Goodsprings cemetery. To this day, his is still the largest headstone (Fig. 03) in the cemetery (Fig. 02). His wife, Jean Fayle, for whom the town of Jean was named, is also buried in the plot.
                                    
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(Fig. 04)
Another well know cemetery resident is Norman Price.  Norman built the Goodsprings Schoolhouse in 1913. The same schoolhouse entered into its 100th year of continuous operation this year. The Price family plot is in a grouping of very old fenced in crosses found in Row H. Norman’s grave is in Row G.
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(Fig. 05)
With literally dozens of unmarked graves going back nearly 130 years, many of which may have been unknown miners, combined with graves of veterans and persons who were buried as recently as a year ago, this place has quite an interesting history. Though I failed to obtain the name and information on the head marker, one of my favorites was that of a person who could have been a regular of the Goodsprings Saloon. Sprouting a Joshua Tree (Fig. 05) draped with various liquor bottles, beer bottles, beer cans and proudly displaying a freshly placed Jack Daniels bottle, it was truly one of the most eye-catching sites in the cemetery.