SPARKS, NV - The cemetery closed in 1946 and went into disrepair over years, there was also no extensive documentation of where their graves were.

“This is Memorial Day for me,” says Scott Borchert, a family member.

Borchert came all the way from Utah for today's ceremony. It was a chance he said to see the final resting place of this great, great grandmother Cora Wilcox Clark.

It was actually his cousin Caroline Mirich who was able to put the pieces together and locate Cora here at the Nevada State Insane Asylum. Sent here by her husband who couldn't control her in 19-17, Cora was buried somewhere on the grounds after living at the asylum more than 20-years.

“Immediately contacted me and said, so you know what they did to that cemetery?” says Borchert when Caroline called him with more information.

“Her crime was her husband didn't get along with her. She was too hard to handle. Everything that happened to the cemetery and the hospital itself can be tied to the budget. it's a lesson of how people shouldn't be treated,” says Caroline.

But as Caroline and others found out not much has changed in these modern times.

Just last summer street crews in the area, who knew about the graveyard, inadvertently dug up bones, and left them in a bag by the side of the road.

The city of Sparks instituted a new policy and those remains are now buried here along with remains moved or found elsewhere in a cemetery that encompassed an area where no on knows the exact boundaries or acreage.

The city of Sparks once turned this area into a children's playground. Called Pinion Park it had a swing set, and slide. There was even a basketball court.. Mirich says she wants children to come back here, only this time with their parents where instead of a playground, it could be a learning ground.

The Friends of Northern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services Cemetery made today’s event possible. The group researched for years-- records, books and documents to help identify patients and the hospital’s history.

In 2009 a senate bill establishing an historic cemetery passed trough the legislature. it was signed by Governor Jim Gibbons.