When I picked up a copy of "Cemeteries of Carson City and Carson Valley," I figured this was a throwaway promo book, but I was wrong. In a way, it's a history primer for the area, loaded with a lot more than photos of crumbling tombstones.
Author Cindy Southerland's "Cemeteries of Carson City" (Arcadia Publishing, 128 pages, $21.99).
Southerland leads each of the five chapters with a short summary and then goes to the subject at hand. She divides the book into these sections: What do the tombstones tell us; the dying art of cemetery symbolism; cemeteries of Carson City; cemeteries of Carson Valley; and those they bury with the most ceremony.
The book is part of the publisher's "Images of America" Series. Arcadia Publishing says its mission is to make history accessible and meaningful to Americans. In this work, they certainly do just that.
The many photos here tell a rich story of the local area, including the fact that one of Carson City's early cemeteries is now covered by a golf course.
And several photos show burial grounds at the Nevada State Prison as well as historic marching bands and sheriff's teams. It's all absorbing for history buffs and for the rest of us as well.
No credits are given for many of the photos and one suspects that the author was behind the camera.
The book is available at local book stores, online or at Arcadiapublishing.com.
Not the most attractive of titles but subject worth exploring.
